The 10th edition of the Congress of European farmers organized by Copa and Cogeca and supported by the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture (HPK), was held in Šibenik. Among the 400 participants and panelists, concerns related to the multiple aftershocks of Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and the climate change effects marked the discussions. A consensus arised from all stakeholders involved in the panels: food security and sustainability must be the priority objectives, with innovation and investments connecting both.

With the Covid crisis, farmers and European cooperatives had been waiting for four years for their Congress to be held. Meanwhile European agriculture has had to face crises that have followed one after the other with increasing intensity. Even if European agriculture has been very resilient, as MEP Norbert Lins pointed out, it cannot and should never be taken for granted. At the same time, the issues of climate change and biodiversity loss are equally essential. For Zdeněk Nekula, the Czech Minister of Agriculture, the agricultural sector is one of the only economic sectors that can act by proposing concrete solutions on both issues. Minister Nekula focused his speech on two concrete examples; carbon farming and new genomic techniques.