Workshop Water and Agriculture

Enhancing cooperation between water and agriculture stakeholders to deliver sustainable agriculture and healthy waters

24 October 2016

Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Agenda

Date and time: 24 October 2016, 8:30-18:00

Location: Hotel Bôrik, Bôrik 15, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Workshop Moderator:

Danka Thalmeinerova

8:30-9:30 / Registration and coffee
9:30-10:00 / ·  Welcome by SK presidency
Vladimír Novák, Slovak Water Director
·  Welcome + Key note speech by the EC
Lanfranco Fanti on behalf of Commissioner Vella
10:00-10:45 / ·  Scene-setting Presentations by the European commission
Covering: State of play with regard to EU water status and agriculture: pressures, policies and challenges. Opportunities for EU water objectives and sustainable agriculture through better implementation and interaction of water and agriculture policies.
(DG ENV- Claire McCamphill, DG AGRI- Alfonso Gutierrez and JRC - Alberto Pistocchi)
10:45-11:15 / Coffee
11:15-12:45 / ·  Presentation of four examples of co-operation between water and agriculture sector
1. Development of an integrated strategy for agriculture and water management
John Gilliland – Northern Irish Farmer, businessman and government sustainability advisor. Chair of Northern Ireland’s Expert Working Group, challenged with creating Northern Ireland’s first Sustainable Land Management Strategy for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
2. Addressing diffuse pesticide and nitrate pollution
French agriculture and environment ministry - the need to act locally and consider environment and economics together: case study the French city of Rennes. Emmanuel Steinmann, France
3. Optimising agricultural water use
Manuel Sapiano, Chief Technical officer, Sustainable Energy and Conservation Unit , Office of the Prime Minister, Malta
4. Towards sustainable plant protection while reaching water quality goals
Anja van Gemerden, Ministry of Economic Affairs Netherlands.
Q + A following all presentations
12:45-13:45 / Lunch
13:45-15:30 / Discussion in 1 of 3 break out groups on:
·  Optimising agricultural nutrient management (moderators: Oscar Schoumans (NL) and Pavel Misiga (DG ENV))
·  Optimising agricultural water use (moderators: Manuel Sapiano (MT) and Alfonso Gutierrez (DG AGRI))
·  Optimising agricultural pesticides use (moderators: Piroska Kiss (DG SANTE) + Claire McCamphill (DG ENV))
Attendees from both water and agriculture sector should come prepared to contribute on:
-  To what extent is there cooperation between agriculture and water authorities to address these three water issues associated with agriculture in your MS or region?
-  What are the most important steps to be taken to enable a joint approach for addressing these issues?
-  What are the key challenges/barriers to be overcome?
-  What environmental and economic opportunities exist in addressing these challenges?
15:30-16:00 / Coffee
16:00-16:45 / ·  Reporting back from the breakout groups to plenary and discussion
16:45-17:30 / ·  High level panel reflection on the output from the proceedings of the day and their views on possible future joint work between water and agriculture sector
Confirmed panellists:
Michael Dantin French MEP
Member of EP since 2009. Member of agriculture committee, replacement member on environment committee. Chairman of the Committee of the Water Agency for Rhone-Mediterranean Cost-Corsica)
John Gilliland
Northern Irish Farmer, businessman and government sustainability advisor. Chair of Northern Ireland’s Expert Working Group, challenged with creating Northern Ireland’s first Sustainable Land Management Strategy for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
Balazs Horvath: Senior Policy Officer - Water and Soil at the EEB.
Balazs leads the water programme of one of the largest European environmental NGOs.
Fiona Marty: Head of European policies at FNAB, the French Organic Farmers Organisation For many years, the farmers organisation is involved in water quality management. At the European level, FNAB is one of the founding members of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements EU (IFOAM EU). Fiona is a member of the regulation task force at IFOAM EU.
Niels Peter Norring: Director of Environment, Energy & EU in the Danish Agriculture and Food Council
Chairman of COPA’s group for Environment and Agriculture since 2003 – vice chairman since 2011 (Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations in the European Union representing EU’s 11 million farmers).He has a PhD in agricultural economics.
Mr. Ivan Zavadsky
Executive Secretary to the International Commission for Protection of the Danube River this Commission since 2013. He worked for the Slovak Government in different senior management positions in the fields of environment and water management for more than 15 years.
17:30-18:00 / ·  Next steps and conclusion of the workshop (Pavel Misiga (DG ENV) and Mauro Poinelli (DG AGRI))