After three years of research, the results from the COMPETE project were presented on 22 September 2015 in the General Agency of the Land of Saxony-Anhalt in Brussels, Belgium.
The policy recommendations for improving the competitiveness of European food supply chains in the global and domestic market will be presented to the European Commission and to invited stakeholders in an open Final Consultation Workshop.
The 16 project partners from 10 countries held discussions with high level representatives from politics, economy and science, among them Henrike Franz, representative of the Land of Saxony-Anhalt to the EU, and Hans-Joerg Lutzeyer, member of the European Commission, DG Research & Innovation.
“The production of food in the European Union is characterized by big differences in structure, productivity and balance of trade,” said the coordinator of COMPETE, Prof. Dr. Heinrich Hockmann from the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
“The European member states will lose further market shares to international competitors if there is no branch compliance and coordinated policy measures.”
Policy recommendations from the COMPETE project can be extrapolated for a national and an EU level.
In some countries, significant wide ranging regulatory reforms and particularly in the institutional environment are necessary.
However, the responsibilities and influence of the EU are limited in this area and member states are responsible of their development and implementation.
These national political measures should follow the subsidiary principle.
