Med9 agriculture ministers seek ‘holistic approach’ to water

The European Union’s ‘Med9’ states’ agriculture ministers on Monday called for a “holistic approach” to water, which will ensure that the region’s inhabitants can live sustainably in the future and be insulated against water scarcity, Cyprus’ Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou said.

Speaking after a visit alongside her eight counterparts to a hydroponic farm in Ormidia and the sewage works in Ayia Napa, she said the ministers’ aim was to issue a joint communique on the matter of water scarcity.

Such a joint communique, she said, should “send a strong message” about all nine countries’ aims to ensure the region’s inhabitants’ “resilience and sustainability in the face of water scarcity”.

In addition, she said, she hopes to simplify processes related to the agriculture sector and have “fewer bureaucratic procedures”, with the aim of “our farmers having access to the infrastructure and the new technology and of course a fund from which we will be able to draw resources to support our farmers who are under pressure.”

She added that those issues had been discussed by the nine ministers, and that they are all “united by common positions, common problems, and common goals”.

“We are here precisely so that we can not just diagnose the problems but put a further strong framework in place to deal with it,” she added.

With this in mind, she said she had chosen to visit Ayia Napa and Ormidia to allow her eight counterparts the opportunity to “have a good picture of what is happening in Cyprus”.

She added that she had chosen to hold the meeting in the Famagusta district because “it is a mainly agricultural district”, adding that it was a great honour to be able to host her eight counterparts.

“The fact that the EU’s agriculture commissioner [Janusz Wojciechowski] is here watching the meeting’s work with us is very important, because it also shows the importance of the issue we are highlighting, which, of course, is water scarcity and its effects on the primary sector,” she said.

“Today, we can see the infrastructure that farmers have at their disposal and the infrastructure that exists, but also what the district governments have at their disposal, such as the sewage works in Ayia Napa, which can be used for irrigation purposes,” she added.

Panayiotou is set to hold a bilateral meeting with Wojciechowski on Monday afternoon and said that the pair will “look at specific issues which Cyprus is requesting from the EU” during that meeting.

She added that the meeting’s timing is very important, as the new European Commission will be formed in the next coming weeks, “and it is very important that we have our positions.”

On her meetings with her eight counterparts, she said, “we had, we are having, and I hope we will continue to have this very good cooperation, to promote together the requests and solutions put forward by our farmers.”

The Med9 consists of the EU’s eight member states which have Mediterranean coastlines – Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, and Spain – and Portugal.

Wojciechowski has been the EU’s agriculture commissioner since 2019 but will not take any role when President Ursula von der Leyen forms her next commission later this year as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has instead nominated Piotr Serafin.