[Digest] The dependency of the EU’s food system on inputs and their sources

The presentation took place on 18 March 2024.

This research project follows up on the European Parliament’s resolution of 24 March 2022 on ‘The need for an urgent EU action plan to ensure food security inside and outside the EU in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine’. The EP resolution expressed its will to commission a “comprehensive study on the dependence of the EU’s food system on inputs and their sources” (point 56 of the resolution).

Along the lines of the EP’s own-initiative report on ‘Ensuring food security and long term resilience of the EU agriculture’, the primary aim of the project is to depict the vulnerabilities of the EU’s food system regarding imported inputs and to evaluate its capacities to cope with structural changes and manage transition.

Tools to address instability in the imported inputs’ markets, and diversify input sources include notably trade and strategic partnerships, a renewed enlargement agenda and the opportunities offered by Ukraine’s production capacities during the transition phase, strategic stockpiling , financial instruments (derivatives) and long-term contracts.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) national strategic plans, together with research, technological development and innovation in EU agriculture, has also the potential to reduce the EU’s import dependency, notably through support to low-input practices, nutrient management, sustainable fertilisers and organic farming and the possibility for Member States to grant increased coupled support to protein crops.