The Presidency placed the topic on the agenda based on the 2015 report of the EU Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR). The aim is the establishment of such an economical system that is more innovative, entails less emissions, uniformly manages the need for sustainable agriculture and fishery, food safety, and sustainable industrial usage of biological resources, and in the meantime protects biodiversity.
The Hungarian delegation, led by Zsolt Feldman Deputy State Secretary responsible for agricultural economy, explained that the Hungarian Government pays special attention to the agricultural research and innovation policies. Hungarian universities, research institutions and farmers could take part in various technical level forums in order to be included in the successful identification of areas of strategic importance.
Many topics concern not just Hungary, but also other countries of the Central and Eastern European region. Therefore during the meeting in Brussels the Hungarian Deputy State Secretary called for a close cooperation between the members of the Visegrad Group and other countries in the region in order to exploit opportunities at the EU level.
The Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission (DG AGRI) developed a long-term strategy in connection with the study. The implementation is supported by a 2-year union framework programme for 2016-2017. The programme launched in October 2015 includes proposals on four topics: sustainable food safety, rebirth of the rural areas, biomass based innovation and sustainable economic development in relation with seas.
