EU priorities at the UN: European Council conclusions on industrial agriculture

Industrial agriculture increases the ‘risk of future pandemics and needs to be tackled’, according to the European Council, which calls for action to be taken on a global basis alongside other major issues including climate change and deforestation.

The full wording of the Council’s conclusions on this point, published on 13 July, and setting out the EU’s priorities for the coming year at the United Nations, are as follows.

“Deforestation, industrial agriculture, illegal wildlife trade, pollution, climate change, water scarcity, inefficient sanitation and waste management and other types of environmental degradation increase the risk of future pandemics and need to be tackled…The EU will support inclusive preparations for effective deliverables at the UN Secretary General’s Food Systems Summit in order to scale up action to continue the transformation of the current food systems to make them healthier, more resilient and environmentally sustainable.”

The Council added that the Covid-19 crisis had “sharpened the focus on the inadequacy of the global response to the climate and biodiversity emergencies… A new reality after COVID-19 should also mean a more modern, climate-neutral and circular economy that will make us less dependent on resources and boost our resilience…The fifth UN Environment Assembly provides an important opportunity to set the stage and drive ambition to foster a green recovery agenda and environmental sustainability.”

Political economy effects of COVID-19 on Central and South East Europe

Political economy effects of Covid-19 on Central and South Eastern Europe

On July 9, 2020, the European Political Economy Project (EuPEP), in collaboration with SEESOX, hosted a tour d’horizon of how Central and South Eastern European countries have confronted Covid-19. The speakers were Charles Enoch (St Antony’s College, Oxford); Christos Gortsos (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens); Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi (LSE Institute of Global Affairs); Kaloyan Simeonov (European Studies Department, Sofia University, St Kliment Ohridski) and Kori Udovicki (Centre for Advanced Economic Studies, Belgrade). Daniel Hardy (St Antony’s College, Oxford) chaired.

There was consensus across panellists that the region has handled the pandemic relatively well, with fewer deaths and less output decline than elsewhere. Charles Enoch, summarizing the discussion, noted the dichotomy between old and new Europe (including Greece in new Europe): the difference in mortality rates so far has been extraordinary, in some cases 10-fold. Panellists attributed this to regional governments’ relatively quick and effective response, with helpful (though often not generous) fiscal packages, and to the valuable tailwinds from ‘innovative and forceful’ ECB and Federal Reserve monetary easing. There has been little politicization of the process. However, the future is far from secure. The impact of lower growth on the real economy will surely manifest itself in higher unemployment than seen so far, and in a resurgence of non-performing loans—reversing the hard-won recovery since the global financial crisis.