Farmers are questioning whether the EU still wants them to produce crops, Copa-Cogeca secretary general Elli Tsiforou said during a debate on crop protection that highlighted mounting pressure on farmers’ toolbox of solutions.

Speaking during CropLife Europe’s five‑year anniversary conference in Brussels, Tsiforou warned of threats to the EU’s food security as farmers face reduced yields and reduced productivity.

Elisabet Nadeu, a senior policy analyst at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) said Europe is losing its natural resilience to the diminishing toolbox of solutions, increased pest pressure, and climate change.

“I’m talking about reductions in soil health, increased water stress, but also the fact that over time, we have reduced the number of crops that we are growing. We have tended to homogenise landscapes,” Nadeu said, meaning farmers are losing the natural pest controls they previously could rely on.

Registering new EU solutions

BASF senior public and government affairs manager Iga Wasilewicz said companies like hers are very worried about the regression in solutions farmers have access to in order to combat such issues. However, while many solutions have been developed or are close to completion, these aren’t reaching farmers due to regulatory hurdles, Wasilewicz said.

“Until we fix what isn’t working today, it’s difficult to talk about the future, because the industry needs a viable business model,” Wasilewicz said. “Waiting 10 years to register a new product in Europe makes it hard for both large and small companies to invest further in R&D.”

MEP Paulo Do Nascimento Cabral (EPP) noted that it’s hard to claim the EU is competitive when such approvals take a year in Brazil.

Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, a director at the Commission’s agriculture directorate (DG AGRI), noted that farming systems have changed considerably over the years, sometimes at the expense of the environment and climate.

“It’s not just because the toolbox is not perfect that we have more and more plant pests,” Geslain-Lanéelle said, calling for better soil and crop management.

“The toolbox is important, but it’s not just about that. More importantly, this is about aligning our agenda and working together,” Geslain-Lanéelle said.

Tsiforou said farmers need a regulatory framework that is economically viable. She added that innovation plays a key role in helping farmers balance conventional and biological crop protection. Nadeu added that pitting the environment against productivity was not a viable alternative to seeing that risks are shared across the full value chain.

Competitiveness

Several panellists discussing the EU agroeconomic challenges raised the issue of competitiveness while also flagging that the agri-food sector received scant attention in the Draghi report.

Tsiforou described the sector as a “motor of competitiveness” that adds €1 trillion to the EU economy when the whole agri-food chain is taken into consideration.

Do Nascimento Cabral said one reason EU farmers are being held back is that they’re being forced to follow rules that aren’t being adhered to in other parts of the world. A 2025 study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) found the non-compliance rate (3.4%) in samples coming from third countries was three times higher than from countries reporting to it (1.0%) for maximum residue levels.

The MEP also appealed for funding applications to become more accessible, saying they’re currently too complex for farmers to navigate. Do Nascimento Cabral also called for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to return to its origin, which he says is to produce quality products at affordable prices for all Europeans.

“When we fail to produce quality products and put the food on the table, it will be the end of the European project,” he added.

[BM]