Blog: My Weekly Update; Expo Milano for the second time; meeting Italian representatives; simplification at the EESC plenary; adopting more RDP's and taking a trip with my fellow Commissioners. - Hoofdinhoud

This week saw my second trip to Expo Milano since its opening where I had the chance to visit even more pavilions.

This week saw my second trip to Expo Milano since its opening where I had the chance to visit even more pavilions. Beginning my visit at the EU pavilion I was welcomed at a reception of agri-food stakeholders. Expo is a real window of opportunity to communicate with citizens, foster global research and stimulate a meaningful policy debate. During my time there I also stopped by the pavilions for China, Uganda, Japan, Morocco and Colombia and took the opportunity to experience the fantastic food and drink products being produced all over the world. The Moroccan pavilion even serves mint tea made from leaves grown in the pavilion garden!

While in Italy I attended a high level meeting of the agri-food chain coalition. When speaking about agri-research my position was clear, innovation is the key to food security. We need to use the €3.6 billion over the next few years on four main things; food, water, energy and climate change. Another important issue that was raised among the stakeholders present were the concerns surrounding the unfair trading practices in the food supply chain. This is something which I am often asked about and for me there are two clear avenues to combat this. The first is considerable financial support for farmers organising into producer groups and the second is tackling issue of unfair trading practices directly by making them more difficult and costly to apply. If you want to read more about my views on these topics click here for the full text of my speech.

Following my trip to Expo I travelled to the capital to meet the Italian elected representatives and agri-food stakeholders. My first stop was an interview with Radio 22 minuti before speaking at the Italian Parliament. High-quality products like Italy's wines have helped make EU world's top agri-food trader and has one of the highest number of origin products across the EU. I discussed the continued importance of these quality products from Italy with the leaders of all the main Italian stakeholder organisations. I also had a chance to further discuss among other things the CAP and the importance of young farmers on front of the agricultural committee at the Italian Parliament this week. I want ambitious and entrepreneurial young Europeans to view the agri-food sector as a rewarding and profitable career choice and with this in mind, we are working hard to find ways to encourage young people to set up or take over agricultural holdings and to develop non-agricultural activities in rural areas.

Back in Brussels, I was invited to speak at the plenary of the European Economic and Social Committee on how civil society can positively influence the CAP. Speaking to EESC representatives there, I gave some time to discussing some of the most significant issues facing the CAP at the moment like simplification and the use of financial instruments. These include a fund I have been working on since the beginning of my mandate in conjunction with the EIB to provide access to finance for farmers. I've recently presented this new financial instrument in Dublin and will be doing the same in other locations across Europe in the coming months. More to come on this.

Today I am travelling with my fellow Commissioners to Luxembourg for the Presidency meeting as Luxembourg became the new President of the Council of the European Union this week. My best wishes to the new Presidency. Congratulations must also be given to the successful Latvian Presidency of the past six months, particularly in relation to their efforts on organic farming. While there I also took the chance to make my way to the official opening of Ettelbruck agricultural fair.

And to end on a final positive note, this week the new rural development programs have been adopted including ones in Luxembourg, Molise in Italy and Murcia in Spain paving the way for a more competitive farming sector in Europe.

Coming up next week is another Strasbourg week. You can keep updated on my agenda as it happens by following me on Twitter and Facebook.