The environment is increasingly becoming a top priority for the food and drink industry in Europe. We use 70% of the agricultural raw materials grown by European farmers so healthy eco-systems are vital for the long-term prosperity of the food sector. In addition, an increasing amount of environmental legislation influences the business of food manufacturers. Last but not least, consumer awareness and civil society expectations concerning sustainability of food production are continuously increasing and must be accommodated by the food industry and supply chain partners.

The food and drink industry is making on-going and significant improvements towards environmental sustainability. Key areas for future action include: spreading existing best practices and technology more broadly across the entire sector, improving commercial competitiveness of new technologies, increasing the cooperation among all key players and improving the knowledge base to support science-based corporate and public sustainability strategies.

An additional top priority for the EU Food & Drink sector is the High Level Group (HLG) launched to follow-up from the DG Enterprise conference entitled ‘Promoting the Leadership of the Agro-Food Industry’. The HLG aims to foster closer coordination between policy and legislative initiatives and to contribute to creating a more competitive, stable and predictable regulatory framework. The list of members includes the Commissioners for Enterprise and Industry, Health, Competition, Energy and the Environment, Ministers, Members of the European Parliament, industry, environmental NGOs, consumers, trade unions and regulators.

To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity & Health, CIAA organised a successful dinner debate in Brussels on 23 April. We were delighted to have Robert Madelin and Jean de Kervasdoué join us as keynote speakers.

Everyone at CIAA is looking forward to our Congress at Autoworld in November. As we move closer to November, we continue to update the conference website so please keep on visiting it regularly at http://www.ciaacongress2008.eu/

Bonne lecture!
Mella Frewen
CIAA Director General