ORU Fogar and the Conferenza delle Regioni d'Italia strengthen their joint work
Taking advantage of the presence of the international delegation of the Organization of United Regions (ORU Fogar) in Rome on the occasion of the 54th session of the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the organization's authorities held a productive working meeting with the Conferenza delle Regioni e delle Province Autonome d'Italia. While on previous occasions this event had given rise to meetings of a more general nature, this time the meeting allowed for a much deeper and more precise understanding of the respective agricultural and food policies.
During the meeting, Dr. Andrea Comacchio, technical coordinator of the Agricultural Policy Commission of the Conferenza delle Regioni, gave a detailed presentation of the structure and functioning of agricultural policy in Italy. As he explained, planning for the sector in the transalpine country is strongly shaped by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, such that the territorial implementation of these community guidelines is agreed upon and negotiated directly between the national Government and the regional governments.
Dr. Comacchio outlined the main bottlenecks facing the Italian agricultural sector, mainly related to water management, difficulties in accessing credit and high energy costs. For his part, the prefect of Manabí (Ecuador) and coordinator of ORU Fogar's Working Group on Food Sovereignty, Leonardo Orlando, stressed that these problems are not exclusive to the European sphere, but rather represent challenges shared by the entire global agricultural world, reflecting a reality very similar to that experienced by producers in Ecuador.
In view of these shared challenges, the General Secretary of ORU Fogar, Carles Llorens, highlighted the enormous potential offered by the exchange of technical experiences between European and non-European regions through tools such as the European Commission's TAIEX programme, which facilitates the transfer of practical knowledge and specialized assistance.
Beyond the technical exchange, the most relevant institutional aspect of the talks —also addressed with Andrea Ciaffi, head of the Europe and International Affairs Area of the Conferenza— was the formal request reiterated by ORU Fogar that the Conferenza delle Regioni may take on a permanent representation of ORU Fogar and of the regional governments before the FAO in Rome.
This proposal takes on special significance at a key moment when a new institutional status for regions within the CFS is being negotiated. The representatives of the Conference welcomed the initiative with great interest and committed to presenting it and studying it properly within their organization, assessing the possibility that the technical teams of the regions closest to Rome could take on this task of permanent follow-up and institutional dialogue before the United Nations headquarters.
