Experts requested supporting measures to make agriculture attractive in a context of progressive ageing rural areas in Spain, as farmers under 35 years of age represent 4.48% of the total compared to 36.57% who are over 65.

In the 27 countries in the European Union, 6.12 percent of the professionals in the sector are young and 34.10 percent are over 65.

In his speech, the Spanish Secretary of State for the Rural Environment and Water, Josep Puxeu, defended the role of young people and women in ensuring the development of the rural environment and recalled that the lines of work of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union also include improvements in the farm produce value chain.

In this sense, he argued for“reform of European legislation and of Common Market Organisations (CMO)” to enable the sector to arrive at contract “agreements” which are compatible with the standards of Defence of Competition.

He stressed the need to put farm contracts into practice and to strengthen interprofessionals and the ability of Producer Organisations (POs) to control supply.

Josep Puxeu stressed that the “Strategy 2020”, which will contain the EU priorities for the next few years, grants special prominence to the common agricultural policy, as “a major policy which concentrates over 40 percent of the Community budget.”

In this respect he indicated that Spain will promote projects demanding “reciprocity” for imports that enter the European Union and that they meet “the same requirements” as European produce.

He further defended putting into practice “market management” instruments, which involve purchasing or withdrawing products to avoid price “volatility” that “destroys a productive fabric which is difficult to recover”.

The Andalusia Regional Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Juan Ignacio Serrano, argued for a strong common agricultural policy beyond 2013, stressing that the regional government “will fight” to receive “every Euro of the single payment that it now has available” and asked for more assistance for young people and women in rural environments.

The President of the ASAJA agricultural organisation, Pedro Barato, asked young European farmers to “ask for the impossible so as to achieve what is reasonable,” and reminded them that the CAP is only a part of the debate, and “our greatest concern is to have prices that allow us to live from what we produce.”

The president of the European Council of Young Farmers (ECYF), Joris Baecke, stated that they see “great opportunities in agriculture, because we are part of a key sector of society,” and the role of farmers has to be revitalised because “they are essential to economic development, employment and renewable energies, and to avoid climate change”.

The President of the Committee on Agricultural and Rural Development in the European Parliament, Paolo de Castro, defended a “modern, effective” CAP, which empowers intervention and risk management “tools” to face the market crisis and one that is committed to environmental and food quality, animal welfare and combating climate change.

The Head of the Cabinet of the next Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission, Georg Häusler, asserted that agro food activity is “very competitive” and that Europe “must play a fundamental role as food supplier to emerging countries.”

The President of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations in the EU (COPA), Padraig Walshe, recalled that one in three jobs in Europe depends on the farming sector (about 30 million people) and that a living rural economy is the best sort of rural development.