Halting the loss of pollinators: The role of the EU agricultural and regional development policies

Halting the loss of pollinators: The role of the EU agricultural and regional development policies

21 February 2020

Brussels, Belgium

The EU Conference aims to look back at what has been achieved in the 2014-2020 period and discuss how to step up actions in the future.

About this Event

The European Commission, in cooperation with the European Committee of the Regions, is organising an EU Conference “Halting the loss of pollinators: The role of the EU agricultural and regional development policies”.

The event aims to look back at what has been achieved in the 2014-2020 period and discuss how to step up actions in the future.

In past decades, pollinators have dramatically declined in occurrence and diversity across the EU. Numerous pollinator species are already extinct, or threatened with extinction. This is a significant cause for concern. Pollinators are vital for the functioning of ecosystems, and human-wellbeing depends on the direct and indirect benefits they provide. In response to this challenge, the European Commission adopted on 1 June 2018 the first-ever EU coordinated action on pollinators – the EU Pollinators Initiative.

The need to maintain and restore habitats for pollinators in rural and urban areas has been long established in the EU policies, in particular the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. The EU Pollinators Initiative looks to strengthen the integration of this need by promoting and facilitating the uptake of effective measures and projects under the EU agricultural and regional development policies.

This event will:
Take stock of the contribution of the EU agricultural and regional development policies to the conservation of pollinators in the programming period 2014-2020;
Discuss how to build on lessons learnt to ensure more effective measures and projects in the 2021-2027 period.
The event is of particular interest to the national and regional authorities responsible for designing and managing the EU common agricultural policy funds (European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) and the EU regional development policy funds (European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund) and stakeholders involved in its implementation such as land managers, local authorities, civil society organisations, researchers and businesses.

Registration and costs
There is no registration fee, but participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs. A buffet lunch will be provided as well as networking drinks at the end of the conference.

This conference is organised by the Institute for European Environmental Policy, on behalf of the European Commission and the European Committee of the Regions. For more information, contact us at events@ieep.eu.

Registration closes on 15 January 2019.

We will confirm your registration no later than a week after the closing date. Please forward this invitation on to your colleagues who may be interested in attending.

If the conference is over-subscribed it might become necessary to prioritise registrations with a view to ensure balanced geographical and professional representation. You will be duly informed if this is the case.

The agenda will follow soon.

Privacy policy
By registering to the conference, you accept the privacy policy and give your consent for the use of your personal data, photos, video recordings and web streaming solely for the purpose of this event. Your name and affiliation will be circulated to other participants. Please find more information about the privacy policy here, and contact us (events@ieep.eu) in case of any questions.

Please note that the conference will be held in English with no interpretation.

Background
The EU Pollinators Initiative responds to the calls for action made by the European Parliament and the Council that confirmed the urgent need, expressed across stakeholder groups, to tackle the dramatic decline of insect pollinators in the EU. The initiative contributes to the objectives of the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 and the EU progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Initiative defines strategic objectives and actions to be taken by the EU and Member States to tackle the decline of pollinators domestically and globally. The integrated framework sets priorities to improve knowledge on the causes and consequences; tackling the causes of pollinator decline; and engaging society and promoting collaboration.

Actions 5 and 6 of the EU Pollinators Initiative encourage and support Member States and stakeholders to make full use of the EU agricultural and regional development (cohesion) policies to maintain and restore pollinator habitats in rural and urban areas, by integrating pollinator conservation needs into the main funds delivering those policies:

European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development provide opportunities to support pollinators in agricultural areas and the wider rural countryside, including in Natura 2000 areas. In this structure, cross-compliance, direct payments‘ greening component, and rural development measures provide a broad set of instruments that can help tackle pressures on insect pollinators. For the common agricultural policy post-2020, enhanced conditionality, eco-schemes and agri-environment-climate measures (AECMs) are proposed as the new “green architecture”. These will be key instruments also from pollinators’ perspective, as they will link the CAP support to environment- and climate-friendly farming practices.

European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund are part of the European Structural and Investment Funds, and key to support Member States’ investments in biodiversity and nature, in particular through green infrastructure. These can come in the form of (i) investments in protecting and restoring nature and biodiversity, (ii) climate change mitigation and adaptation or (iii) sustainable urban development. Through deployment of green infrastructure, they can also support the conservation of pollinators at landscape scale. A significant part of the allocation relevant for the protection pollinators is currently implemented through the European Territorial Cooperation programmes or Interreg. Local actions on pollinators through community-led local development (CLLD) are also an important avenue to support pollinator conservation in local communities.

More information: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/species/pollinators

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation action programme under grant agreement no. 776528. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the proGIreg project and in no way reflects the views of the European Union.