Sustainable growth: Green Deal and data strategy, the twin engine of European farming?

In the Communication on “Shaping Europe’s digital future » dated 19 February 2020, the European Commission stated that « the twin challenge of a green and digital transformation” required « more sustainable solutions which are resource-efficient, circular and climate-neutral to advance the circular economy, support the decarbonisation of all sectors and reduce the environmental and social footprint of products placed on the EU market.”

On the same day, the Communication on “A European strategy for data” pointed to EU-wide common, interoperable data spaces in strategic sectors, including agriculture. “The spaces will include: (i) the deployment of data-sharing tools and platforms; (ii) the creation of data governance frameworks; (iii) improving the availability, quality and interoperability of data – both in domain-specific settings and across sectors”.

In particular, the Common European agriculture data space “could support the emergence of an innovative data-driven ecosystem based on fair contractual relations as well as strengthen the capacities for monitoring and implementing common policies and reducing administrative burden for government and beneficiaries.”

The Commission is aiming high indeed. There is no better time to discuss how data sharing can help:

• create innovative data-driven ecosystems with improved availability, quality, and interoperability of data in order for the EU agricultural sector to be able to achieve the ambitious performance goals of the EU Green Deal and while being economically sustainable, ensuring food security, safety, quality, etc.
• strengthen the capacities for monitoring and implementing common EU policies and reducing administrative burden for government and beneficiaries. The public/administrative dimension is essential if we want on one hand the EU to be able to be in a position to monitor the status quo of natural resources and on the other hand if we want to simplify the life of farmers in their interaction with public administration.

The debate will be held under the Chatham House rule.

For more information on our Digital in Practice Programme (DiPP) click here.