Dear Visitor,

Belgium will move centre-stage in the second half of 2010 when it will preside over the EU Council.  In the current economic climate and political situation, this represents both prestige and enormous responsibility for Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, and the current and incoming governments.

Creating the conditions for increased EU economic competitiveness is of great importance to CIAA. The EU food and drink industry is an important pillar of the European economy, serving over 500 million consumers with a vast variety of safe and high quality products. It is the largest manufacturing sector in Europe, with a turnover of €965 billion in 2008 and provides direct employment to 4.4 million people.

The EU food and drink industry continues to be committed to serve European consumers efficiently and to respond to their ever more rapidly changing needs. In turn, European policy makers are responsible for fostering a stimulating business environment to ensure that the food and drink industry can remain competitive in an increasingly global market.

CIAA has highlighted a number of priority areas for the Belgian Presidency which include:

• The implementation of the Recommendations of the High Level Group (HLG) on the Competitiveness of the Agri-food Industry;
• Continued progress of appropriate legislative developments in the context of the EC Regulation on food information to consumers;
• Efforts to boost the uptake of R&D and to promote innovation in the EU food and drink industry – most notably via the European Technology Platform Food for Life;
• Feeding into the Presidency’s work in the area of nanotechnology, and most notably, the conference on Nanotechnology in November, as well as promoting the important work undertaken by CIAA in this area through its Stakeholder Dialogue Days; and finally,
• Demonstrating CIAA’s input in the area of environmental sustainability via the work of the Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Round Table (RT) as well as continuing to follow key environmental dossiers as they pass through the legislative process

CIAA looks forward to working closely with the Belgian Presidency, contributing to its success and making progress in the areas that are key to Europe’s food and drink industry.