Food security
According to the widely accepted definition of the World Food Summit (1996), food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
The EU has always been in the frontline in addressing the challenges of food security and EU has a lasting commitment to promote food security throughout the world.In the European Consensus on Development, at the end of 2005, the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission affirmed that the EU will continue to work to improve food security at international, regional and
national level.
The volatility of food prices experienced since 2007 has put numerous developing countries and their populations in an unprecedented situation of need and has therefore called upon the international community to provide an extraordinary response.
To respond to the crisis, the EU has taken new measures as well as supported initiatives promoted at the international level.
At the European level, in addition to the generous allocations made available in 2008 and 2009 through food aid, emergency aid, redeployment of funds, the European Development Fund, additional national contributions as well as voluntary contributions by the member states to the World Food Programme, the EU has adopted a regulation establishing a new facility - worth EUR 1 billion - to support agriculture in developing countries for the period 2008-2010. Its implementation is ongoing.
At the international level, the EU has been at the frontline to promote a more coordinated and longer-term international response to the current food crisis, in particular in the UN, in international financial institutions and in the context of the G8. In this context, the EU played a leading role at the Madrid High Level Meeting on Food Security for All (Madrid, 26-27 January 2009), where the process of establishment of a Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition was launched, and in the subsequent steps taken in the context of the FAO, where such work was brought forward.
During the Spanish Presidency, the Commission will come forward with a Communication defining a EU policy framework to assist developing countries addressing agriculture and food security challenges, also based on a public consultation held between 16/11/2009 and 20/01/2010.
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