Access To Land
Eco Ruralis – the Romanian peasants association - together with The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) and partners, organized a series of policy events in the first days of June in Bucharest, coinciding with the informal meeting of the EU agriculture ministers.
On the 1st of June, the Nyéléni Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Food Sovereignty Movement meeting took place, with 15 participants and the objective to advance the regional articulation of peasant struggles in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, for the realization of their rights.
The next day, the public conference Beyond CAP: how can human rights prevail over the economic interests in public policies for food and agriculture? brought together in four panel sessions both experts from FAO, EU, the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture, but also peasants from La Via Campesina International and their allies. The event proposed a debate around the opportunities in the FAO Decade of Family Farming and the process in which to consolidate the UN Declaration of Peasants Rights. There was a lot of focus on the CAP reform, namely how to strategically steer it towards supporting the small family farm model.
The conference was accompanied by a market in which members of Eco Ruralis from all over Romania showed the diversity of peasant farming through their products: cheese, fruit and vegetables, jams, canned goods, etc. Many of the Eco Ruralis members could not join, having suffered floods and landslides, so the ones in attendance showed solidarity and raised awareness to the fragility and precariousness of rural livelihoods.
Last but not least, a public manifestation for CAP reform promoting small-scale agriculture took place outside the Romanian Parliament, as the agriculture ministers were in session, during the EU-presidency of Romania.
Conference programme here: https://www.eurovia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/EN-Program-Event-CAP-Decade-Peasants-Rights.pdf
