Elected lawmakers set to shape the EU’s agrifood policy

As the dust settles after the European elections, the landscape of the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) poised to shape the agricultural policy in the new mandate is becoming clearer.

Several prominent agricultural policy lawmakers falied to secure high enough positions on their national lists for re-election, including France’s Benoît Biteau (Greens/EFA), Jeremy Decerle (Renew), and Anne Sander (EPP).

Others, like Spain’s Clara Aguilera (S&D), chose not to run.

Euractiv’s Agrifood Hub has identified all the re-elected and new lawmakers likely to influence agricultural policy during the 2024-2029 mandate.

The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) leads with 17 lawmakers with a background on farming. The liberal Renew follows with 11, and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) with 10.

Spain elected four centre-right MEPs with previous AGRI committee (AGRI) experience: Juan Ignacio Zoido, Esther Herranz, Gabriel Mato, and Adrian Vazquez.

Carmen Crespo, former Andalusian farming minister, is likely to join the agriculture committee in the Eurochamber.

In Germany, new faces include Bavarian farmers Stefan Köhler (EPP) and Christine Singer (Renew).

EPP’s Norbert Lins, former AGRI chair, and Christine Schneider, a previous AGRI substitute, secured another term. Maria Noichl remains the sole agricultural MEP for German socialists, same as the Greens/EFA coordinator in the last mandate, Martin Häusling.

France’s politics is uncertain due to a snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron on the election night of 9 June, but Céline Imart of Les Republicains seems likely to be among those playing a role in the European Parliament’s agricultural policy.

Far-right Rassemblement National (ID) is sending Gilles Pennelle, a councilman in Britanny, and Valérie Deloge, a sheep farmer and regional politician in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, who are eager to join the AGRI committee. Maurie Dauchy (ID), an AGRI substitute, was re-elected.

Italy’s Herbert Dorfmann, EPP coordinator for agriculture in the last mandate, will probably continue his work on food and farming policy, as well as his colleague Salvatore de Meo. Socialists Pina Picierno and Camilla Laureti, the Partito Democratico member responsible for agriculture, also return.

Central-Eastern Europe retains key AGRI MEPs: Slovakia’s Michal Wiezik (Renew) and Katarína Roth Nevedalova (NI), and Czechia’s Martin Hlaváček (Renew), Veronika Vrecionová (ECR), and Ivan David (ID). Hungary’s new Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, will be represented by farmer and writer Gabriella Gerzsenyi.

Fidesz (NI) includes Győrffy Balázs, a farmer and president of the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture.

In Poland, at least 40 farmers and people associated with agriculture ran in the EU elections but none of them gained enough support to clinch a seat in Brussels.

Only two MEPs from Polish far-right party Konfederacja, Anna Bryłka and Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik, who has worked in animal breeding for fur production, are close to agricultural issues.

Another parliamentary committee dealing with agriculture is the powerful Environment Committee (ENVI), which has overseen several agricultural files, including pesticide reduction, the Nature Restoration Law (NRL), and new farming emissions rules.

Key figures like ENVI’s chair, Pascal Canfin (Renew), and MEPs Cesar Luena (S&D), and Jessica Polfjärd (EPP), who led negotiations on Nature Restoration Law and rules on gene-edited crops, respectively, were all re-elected.

European Commissioner for Environment and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius, another important player for farming regulations in the previous mandate, is the only MEP elected from the newly formed Democratic Union For Lithuania and could join the Greens/EFA group.

The new legislative term will officially start on 16 July with the constituent plenary session in Strasbourg, where MEPs will decide on committees and subcommittees. At the first AGRI committee meeting, MEPs will elect their respective chairs and vice-chairs.

*The chart was elaborated using provisional election results from 11 June 2024

Euractiv’s network and newsroom contributed to this reporting

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro and Zoran Radosavljevic]

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