It is a sector to be privileged and everything suggests that it will be: Italian sustainable agriculture in January should receive a first tranche of funds from the Recovery Fund. Of the 10 billion in aid for the new agricultural policy (CAP) in force from 2023, the advances of 1,2 billion will concern sustainable crops spread throughout the country. The prospect of facing a 2021 with lower capital losses than in 2020 is making the rounds of agricultural organizations. Sustainability-oriented industrial strategies see Italy in first place in Europe. With the support of Minister Bellanova, agricultural companies have engaged in a battle within the EU on duties and export volumes. Italian quality against fakes and imitations.
The agreement between Parliament and the EU Council on the transfer of the first resources establishes that more than half of the funds go to sustainable investments. Companies will close tight budgets this year and have made it known that without aid they will not be able to play their part in the troubled national energy transition. The range of sustainable interventions ranges from the use of low-emission fuels, to digitization, to the purchase of non-impactful means and equipment. One chapter is reserved for young agricultural entrepreneurs to which a contribution of 100 thousand euros is assigned as a first settlement. "Let it be clear - explains the MEP Paolo De Castro (PD), rapporteur of the agricultural part - that the Member States will have to invest at least 37% of these resources released for agri-environmental measures". Then there is an 8% that can be used to increase the quota or be used to finance measures related to rural development.
Until January, however, we have to wait for the vote of the European Parliament, expected in December. The final assent from the MEPs is also expected from the environmental organizations which have criticized the agreements reached. Among others the substantial Farm to Fork program which introduces fertilizer reduction targets, in the opinion of the associations it does not come out well. The criticisms extend to the entire green package of the EU which, instead, has a central point in the agri-food sector. The three forms of sustainability - environmental, economic and social - on which a tough political battle is being waged, today do not see environmentalists alongside the Commission. For Italy, it should be the government that stimulates a less contentious confrontation in order not to risk undermining important industrial efforts. The environmental accusations reach as far as the oil and fertilizer companies.
Is it enough to have introduced a mid-term review of the European CAP in 2025 to neutralize these criticisms? Difficult to make predictions. Especially since the advance of funds to January 2021 in Italy shouldn't be too bad. Despite the bombastic talks about the green turnaround, the EU has just declared Italy to be lagging behind for the structural funds in 2019.
