From COVID-19 to the green recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic has once again demonstrated the importance to secure food production within Europe, raising questions on how Europe’s farming sector can be best supported in times of crisis.

However, this unprecedented situation does not only require solutions for its immediate devastating impact, such as the shortage of seasonal workers in several Member States, but also calls on European institutions to reshape long-term political priorities in the light of the current crisis. That is the purpose of the “Green recovery alliance”, an informal alliance launched last week in the European Parliament which advocates for the European Green Deal to be the cornerstone of the EU’s recovery plan in the aftermath of COVID-19.

79 MEPs across the EU political spectrum, 37 CEOs, 28 business associations, the European Trade Union Confederation, 7 NGOs, and 6 think tanks have already signed the appeal. Their call for mobilisation, entitled “Green Recovery: reboot & reboost our economies for a sustainable future”, emphasises the need for massive investments to shape a new European economic model built around green principles: “more resilient, more protective, more sovereign and more inclusive”.

According to the signatories, the technological progress made in the last 10 years, including renewable energy, agro-ecology, and zero-emission mobility, is the key to massively reduce costs and therefore accelerate a fair and just transition. The resulting climate-neutral economy and especially the transformation of the EU farming system have indeed the potential to “rapidly deliver jobs, growth and improve the way of life of all citizens worldwide, and to contribute to building more resilient societies”.