BIC and Copa-Cogeca, the European association representing farmers and agri-cooperatives, organised a joint workshop 'The future European partnership on 'Circular bio-based Europe and the role of farmers, forest owners and their cooperatives' on 6 May (see agenda here).
The workshop included presentations from DG RTD, the BIC team, BIC members representing the primary sectors - Metsä Group and Cosun, and Copa-Cogeca, and was attended by several national farmer organisations and representatives from DG AGRI.
The aim of the workshop was to have an exchange of views on the opportunities and challenges for EU farmers, foresters and their cooperatives, as well as their involvement in the future public-private partnership for the bio-based industries – Circular bio-based Europe. The workshop sought to build on the findings of the BBI, BIC and EC study on participation of the primary sectors in BBI JU projects which demonstrated that more could be done to increase the primary sector's involvement and contribution to the bio-based economy.
BIC provided an update on the draft SIRA 2030 and the objective to enable primary sectors to become strategic partners in bio-based value chains. The workshop is a demonstration of BIC’s continuing efforts to enhance the participation of the primary sectors in the bioeconomy and are just the firsts steps in strengthening cooperation with Copa-Cogeca, its members and European primary sectors as a whole.
