EurEau met with a member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, on Wednesday 18 March 2015.

The meeting was an occasion to share with Mr Hogan’s Cabinet the views of the water sector on how to improve the sustainability of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The agricultural sector is indeed the main user of water resources and also the main source of pressures.

The exchange of views addressed also the European Court of Auditors report “Integration of the EU water policy objectives with the CAP: a partial success” highlighting that blueing measures are not successfully integrated yet in the CAP.

Commissioner Hogan, with whom I had the pleasure to work during the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU when he was serving as Irish Minister of Environment, defines himself “the greenest Agriculture Commissioner the Commission has had for nearly 25 years”.

The water sector is confident that he will be sensitive to the protection of water resources as he believes that “you cannot be economically sustainable, if you are not environmentally sustainable. You can’t do one without the other. For me, economic sustainability and environmental sustainability are two sides of the same coin.”

Carla

Water matters. EU matters.