Articles & updates

Juan Sagarna, from the Sustainability, Quality and Innovation department of Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España, as coordinator of the COOPID Project, will participate in the joint seminar organised by COPA COGECA on the 30 of June 2023 with the title: Bioeconomy and sustainable use of natural resources: from niche to norm.

Juan Sagarna will take part in the panel “Where we are and what next– EU, national, local level – with a focus on scale and speed”, scheduled to take place from 12:20 to 13:00.

Ten years after the publication of the first EU Bioeconomy strategy, we consider it important to bring this topic back to the priority list at EU and national level. This strategy and its update from 2018 has helped some Member States to prepare national strategies and frameworks to develop bioeconomy at local and regional level and to create new opportunities for rural businesses.

The EU Bioeconomy strategy progress report published in June 2022 acknowledged the key role of bioeconomy to achieve the key EU objectives mainly in tackling climate change and substituting fossil-based materials and fuels and at the same time contributing to biodiversity and viable rural areas. After the European Commission conference on bioeconomy in October 2022, the Swedish Presidency conference in February 2023 and the adoption of the Council conclusions in April 2023, we need to continue this debate and have an open exchange with all relevant institutions and stakeholders on the next steps on how to go with bioeconomy from niche to norm and have it as a priority for primary producers for coming years.

Strengthening the European circular bioeconomy is one of the most concrete options for reducing our reliance on imported fossil materials, products and fuels whilst strengthening the rural economic fabric and enhancing environmental sustainability. Farmers, forest owners and managers and agriculture and forest cooperatives innovated and invested a lot to enhance their contribution to the bioeconomy and are committed to continuing this is the future. However, more needs to be done at EU and national level to increase the speed and scale up the opportunities provided by bioeconomy and to provide the right skills to the current and future generations to ensure sustainable business models.

The conclusions of this seminar will serve as recommendations from European farmers, forest owners and managers and agriculture and forest cooperatives to the European institutions and Member States on why and how to make the bioeconomy a priority for the next period. – COPA COGECA, programme of the seminar “Bioeconomy and sustainable use of natural resources: from niche to norm”

Find Dissemination materials about the previously showcased stories in the COOPID interactive platform and the COOPID project website. The videos about the previous success stories showcased are available in the COOPID Youtube channel, check them out!