Brussels, 29 March 2010

The Austrian Minister for Agriculture, Niki Berlakovich (ÖVP) chaired last night the first meeting of the European People's Party (EPP) Ministers of Agriculture. The EPP Ministers' meeting coordinated on a political level today’s scheduled Council meeting and gave impetus to EPP’s commitment in the common agriculture policy. EPP President Wilfried Martens hosted the meeting in the Party headquarters in Brussels.

“This EPP Ministerial meeting is a very good initiative and comes at a crucial moment for CAP reform. It is important for the Agriculture Ministers to communicate to the public and to consumers the importance of agriculture and the positive results of CAP in European societies. Agriculture has a direct impact on food security, climate change and many new challenges of our time, which we as EPP have to address,” Berlakovich underlined.

The EPP Agriculture Ministers’ meeting is part of a series of EPP Ministerial meetings such as EcoFin, Foreign Affairs, Energy, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, Defence, Justice and Home Affairs, and Transport, organised and coordinated by the Party from its Brussels headquarters. The EPP Ministerial meetings underpin the horizontal activity of the Party with all the main EU institutions including the Council. A total of 9 EPP Agriculture Ministers participated in the meeting.

Note to editors

The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 72 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the Commission, Council, and Parliament, 13 EU and 5 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.

For more information
Kostas Sasmatzoglou, EPP Spokesman, Tel. +32-2-285 4147
Javier Jiménez, EPP Press Officer, Tel: +32-475 480446