On 1 February 2023, MIND STEP partner from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Silvia Coderoni, attended the online seminar “Policy, Markets, and Trade in the bioeconomy” organized by the University of Hohenheim- Stuttgart. The title of Silvia’s presentation was “Key policy objectives for European agricultural policies some reflections about policy coherence and governance issues”. She presented the work done in MIND STEP, stating the project’s objective, which is to support public decision-making in agricultural, rural, and environmental policies via impact assessment, considering the behaviour of individual decision-making.
During the presentation, it was discussed the consultation process with relevant stakeholders through individual and semi-structured interviews; the group consisted of four (4) researchers, two (2)EU policymakers (from DG Agri and Climate), one (1) regional authority, one (1) farmers’ association, one (1) consulting company and one (1) cooperative bank. Furthermore, in 2020 an online focus meeting took place with the stakeholders. The results of these consultations were the identification of the key proposed post-2020 CAP objectives, preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, environmental care, and climate change actions were among the most relevant objectives to consider. Among other topics, the war in Ukraine was mentioned as a key factor in raising global attention on food security because of the short and long-term repercussions, reflections on how the food security objectives can be met vs. the environmental sustainability challenge, and how there cannot be food security without environmental sustainability.