Blog: My Weekly Update; Adopting new RDP's and an eventful trip to the US - Hoofdinhoud

Last week I travelled across the Atlantic for a four day mission to the United States. As European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development I need to be aware not only of the issues and opportunities for European agriculture, but also how we can collaborate with others to promote the role of agriculture and rural development globally, through organisations such as the OECD and the United Nations.

This week saw another important milestone in the rollout of the new Rural Development Programme. I approved a further 24 Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) in all four corners of the EU.

These RDPs aim to improve the competitiveness of the EU farming sector, care for the countryside and climate, and strengthen the economic and social fabric of rural communities. We expect these programmes to create over 40 000 jobs in rural areas and about 700 000 training places - good news for rural areas across Europe.

Last week I travelled across the Atlantic for a four day mission to the United States. As European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development I need to be aware not only of the issues and opportunities for European agriculture, but also how we can collaborate with others to promote the role of agriculture and rural development globally, through organisations such as the OECD and the United Nations.

Beginning my week in Washington DC, I had a range of meetings with Congressmen and Obama Administration officials on the topic of TTIP. I had a good meeting with USTR Mike Froman where we updated each other in relation to the state of play on either side of the Atlantic, particularly in relation to Trade Promotion Authority in Washington. In the Senate, I had meetings, with Senator Pat Roberts, the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Debbie Stabenow, Democrat Ranking Member. On the House side, I met with Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, as well as Rep. Sander Levin, Democrat Ranking Member. I met Rep. Michael Conaway, Chair of the House Agri Committee, as well as Democrat Ranking Member Rep. Colin Peterson. Finally, I met with Rep. Jim Costa, the senior Californian Member of the House Agriculture Committee and also a key member of the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue - a joint European Parliament-US Congress forum.

Of course the "European connection" is everywhere in the US, and I was glad to talk to Rep. Costa about his Portuguese roots. Indeed, Rep. Paul Ryan has roots in my home county of Kilkenny in Ireland. His great-grandfather, Patrick William Ryan, hailed from Graiguenamanagh in County Kilkenny. To mark this ancestral link, I presented him with a product of Cushendale Woollen Mills, a family run business in the town of Graiguenamanagh. He was glad to receive it and mentioned he enjoyed a recent visit to Kilkenny with his family to retrace his roots.

I also engaged with stakeholder organisations by meeting with Bob Stallman, President of US Farm Bureau and also Roger Johnson, President of the National Farmers Union. I took great interest in the work carried out by NFU on transparency in the food chain with the campaign displaying the "Farmer's Share of Retail Food Dollar".

On Tuesday I continued on to Memphis, Tennessee to attend the OECD Rural Development Conference, which was opened at the National Museum of Civil Rights, which is located by the spot where the Martin Luther King was assassinated. It is a poignant museum which documents the struggle for civil rights in Tennessee in the 1960s, which Dr King so eloquently led. The following day, OECD Rural Conference was structured around series of high level meetings, starting at a breakfast meeting, chaired by OECD Deputy Secretary General, and former Finnish PM, Mari Kiviniemi. . During these meetings, attended by Ministers and senior officials from around the globe, that I stressed that urban and rural communities need each other. I was proud to use the example of our own European Rural Development programme as a key element in fostering jobs and economic activity in Europe.

Exchanging views on a panel chaired Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture was another highlight of the day. As I said in our exchange, getting the private sector involved in rural development depends on access to finance.

Later that afternoon, I addressed a meeting of the American Association of Origin Products on the margins of the OECD Rural Conference. On both sides of the pond we have a rich tradition of localised produce in the form of GIs (Geographic Indications), such as Napa Valley wine or Vidalia onions in the US, or indeed Scotch whisky or Roquefort cheese in Europe.

GIs are "products with a story". Consumers want cheese, meat, wine or whiskey with a story - tales of the men and women keeping alive traditional ways of doing things, in the place they call home. A name recognised as a GI tells such a story.

There are now 3,300 GIs registered in the EU: 1,750 wine names, 1,205 food names, 336 spirits and 5 aromatised wines. This is one of our Bona Fide EU success stories, and my message to our American friends was that what works for us, can also work for them.

And speaking of "products with a story", I later presented US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack with a bottle of Irish whiskey to mark the occasion of our bilateral meeting.

On Thursday I was in New York for a meeting with UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson. This year is a poignant one for the role of agriculture in global food security with the review of the Millennium Development Goals set out by the United Nations. We discussed both the ability and the responsibility of European agriculture to end food insecurity and to aid in feeding the world. It was a pleasure to continue the UN engagement with a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today in the Commission College.

Before heading back to Europe on Thursday I visited the Time Warner Building to be interviewed by CNN's Richard Quest, live on his show Quest Means Business. We had a cordial exchange on the possibilities of a deal for TTIP, indeed it was timely in light of US Congress debating Fast Track or Trade Promotion Authority at the time of going to air.