📢 From Stockholm, Europe's leading farming organisations are sounding the alarm. In a landmark declaration addressed to EU Heads of State and Government meeting in Brussels for the European Council meeting, the European farming community is sending a clear warning: European agriculture is approaching breaking point, and the window to rebuild it on solid foundations is rapidly closing. Agriculture has always been at the heart of the European project. Food security has never been merely an economic concern. It is a foundation of Europe's sovereignty, stability and peace. At a time of mounting geopolitical uncertainty, farming must be recognised as a pillar of Europe's security and defence. This means maintaining a strong, common and properly funded Common Agricultural Policy. 🇪🇺 Europe cannot strengthen its security or aspire to be a global power while weakening its own agricultural foundations. Defending the CAP is therefore not just about defending European agriculture. It is about defending Europe itself! 🔗Read Full #StockholmDeclaration >>>> copa-cogeca.eu/publications

👩‍🌾15 October is the International Day of #RuralWomen the 12th Copa-Cogeca Congress did more than mark the date, it confronted an uncomfortable truth head-on: women farmers still face structural barriers that have nothing to do with their competence and everything to do with how the system is built #IYWF2026 Collateral requirements are designed around land ownership. Credit assessments that can misread farms because of their scale. Risk perception can penalise women before they've made a single business decision. The result❔ Women who want to invest, innovate and modernise still face many barriers, including from cultural and traditional perceptions. Without encouraging women and especially young women, the generational renewal EU desperately needs is also affected. Francesca Gironi, Chairwoman of the @COPACOGECA Women's Committee, connected the dots: access to land, access to finance, and the role of women in farm succession are not three separate issues. They are one question about who gets to farm in Europe's next generation.

💡EU research promises solutions to agriculture. In the meantime, companies hold digital tools to simplify paperwork that consumes farmers' time. 2 sessions at the Congress are tackling the same question: does any of it actually reach the farm gate? 3⃣ Horizon Europe projects were showcased, with Copa Cogeca on the ground to make sure research serves farmers’ needs. @UmbertoDP, Director for Resilience, Innovation and Social Affairs, opened with the principle that should govern every euro of EU research money: innovation is value creation and only counts when it can be adopted creating benefits for farmers. Projects make the case in practice: @EUFarmBook is an AI tool which is pulling the practical outputs of EU-funded research into one findable, accessible, multilingual reference point; BALANCE is testing nature-positive farming systems that combine restoration with production, on the premise that biodiversity and farm profitability are not enemies to be traded off; And @eu4advice is running 4 Living Labs in Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Hungary, where producers, advisors, researchers and consumers co-create solutions in real-life conditions. The Special Workshop on digital labelling takes the same fight to the administrative end. Every farmer knows the real cost of a paper label: hours in the office that should be hours in the field. At the centre of the session is #AgriGuide, developed by @CropLifeEU together with Copa Cogeca and partner. @COPACOGECA Secretary General Elli Tsiforou sets the bar: digitalisation must deliver tangible simplification, not move the paperwork to a screen. 🌐Jelte Wiersma of @CEMAagri emphasised on interoperability, because a digital label that can't talk to the machinery already in use is just another silo. 🖇️What links the two sessions is one conviction: knowledge and tools are only worth having if they are accessible and efficient; and only if the farming and cooperative sectors are involved from day one, not invited to the closing conference. #AgriGuide #DigitalFarming #Simplification