Today is the first day of the visit of the EU Commissioner for Agriculture. He convinced me personally. At a joint meeting with agricultural organizations today, I highlighted:
1. Excellent cooperation between beekeepers and farmers, since 2011 in Slovenia without mass bee deaths – let’s transfer good practice to the EU and thus reduce bee deaths throughout Europe.
2. Varroa control agents are at different prices in different countries, the free movement of these agents throughout Europe is necessary and thus the price will be similar everywhere, the goal is the same!
3. Initiative for a unified European promotional campaign, Europeans buy locally, origin Europe. Unified promotion of EU quality schemes is necessary.
The Commissioner answered these questions as follows:
He absolutely agrees with the transfer of good practices throughout the EU.
Regarding bee disease remedies and all phytopharmaceuticals in general, he was very clear, it is necessary to simplify the registration of new, more effective medicines and FFS and a single registration in Europe for everyone. Above all, he supports the development and registration of new biological remedies.
He said that in Europe the procedure takes up to 8 years, for example in the USA a maximum of 1 year. This is unacceptable, so he advocates simplifying procedures.
Regarding promotion, he emphasized that this is essential. He emphasized that part of promotion is also educating all consumers about the advantages of local food!
Tomorrow is a new day, the day when we will present the key beekeeping topics to the Commissioner …
Boštjan Noč
President of the European Beekeeping Association
