The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) participated at the Private Sector Forum on Food Security in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Region organised in Barcelona, on 5-6 May 2015, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). The PAM delegation was lead by the Secretary General, Ambassador Sergio Piazzi, who was accompanied by two leading academics from the University of Siena, Dr. Giacomo Fabietti and Dr. Antonella Autino. The University of Siena is a key partner of the PAM Academic Platform.
The objective of the conference was to deepen relationships between the public and private sector – from farmers and their organisations to small, medium and large agribusiness enterprises – and to develop initiatives to increase investment in agricultural and food systems. The Forum gathered policy-makers, financial institutions and representatives from the private sector, research centres and academia. It was an opportunity to discuss how public and private sectors could collaborate to bolster food security in the Mediterranean by enabling sustainable private investment in a region characterised by population growth, natural-resource constraints and a structural deficit in the production of staple food.
PAM Secretary General addressed the Forum and highlighted PAM’s vision, activities and commitment to the issues brought forward. “Food security is, indeed, one of the priorities of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, because the Mediterranean Region is one of the most developed areas in the world, but also one of the most vulnerable to climate change and human activities”, Amb. Piazzi said.
He added that the severe impact of global warming, unsustainable exploitation and scarcity of natural resources, contamination and overexploitation of water resources, losses in food supply and availability and, more generally, unsustainable production and consumption patterns are just some of the challenges that the Mediterranean basin has to face.
Issues of food security and social and political stability are strongly inter-related and they are both consequence and cause of each other. In this context, PAM Secretary General said, there is the need of a regional approach, in which sustainable development should be the key objective to be pursued in order to guarantee a future to the Mediterranean Agri-food sector, with the ultimate goal to build inclusive well-being and socio-economic development in the Mediterranean Area. Maltese Parliamentary Secretary, Hon. Roderick Galdes, together with Amb. Piazzi, highlighted the close relation between food security and the migration phenomenon, particularly in respect of the unfolding dramatic flow of refugees from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Amb. Piazzi recalled that the lack of political will and the lack of multilateral policy coherence are two issues which were also highlighted during several meetings of the PAM Panel on Trade and Investment in the Mediterranean. These are problems that affect many sectors, such as investments on education and training, energy projects, infrastructure fund allocation, and last but not least, food security.
“Therefore, I want to reaffirm that PAM is strongly committed to achieving food security in the Mediterranean region, and to promoting sustainable agriculture solutions. The members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean are playing their role of lawmakers, in order to implement the policies needed at the national level”, Dr. Piazzi remarked. PAM works with its member parliaments to build the momentum of political will necessary for the implementation of solutions. PAM will also contribute to the process in facilitating the cooperation among member parliaments, in order to have national legislative frameworks which are harmonised and coherent at the regional level.
The PAM Secretary general also reiterated that PAM strongly supports the strategic efforts of the FAO in the Mediterranean region, including on the issue of both resilience and fishing, which is an important source of income and food production in the Mediterranean. “I look forward to strengthening the cooperation between PAM and the FAO, in order to solidify the link between the elected representatives of the Mediterranean region and the global strategic driving force on food security”, Dr. Piazzi added.
PAM also cooperates with the private sector on this subject and is currently supporting a closed-loop hydroponic greenhouses project in the Middle East. In addition, in June 2015, PAM will hold a parliamentary event in Milan, jointly with the industrial sector, to familiarize Mediterranean MPs with a success process of restoration of a brown field site, which is now perfectly suitable for agriculture use at its original levels.
In his final remarks the PAM Secretary General underscored the importance that the Assembly continues to work with all the major actors on the food security issue, as well as relevant stakeholders from both the public and the private sectors, in order to provide legislative support for sustainable agriculture solutions on a national level, and to increase policy harmonization on the regional level to achieve comprehensive food security for all the people of the Mediterranean region.
The Barcelona event was an excellent opportunity to reinforce the exemplary cooperation with the Union for the Mediterranean, the World Bank and other European financial institutions.