María Paz de la Cuesta

Maria de la Cuesta is a policy officer at the European Commission, where she works on the governance of agri-food markets.

She holds a law degree from the University of Valladolid, Spain (2013) and a PhD from the European University Institute, Italy (2020), where she conducted research on legal and market aspects of the food supply chain.

Before joining the Commission, she held teaching and research positions at the College of Europe and the Hague University of Applied Sciences.

TALKS AT THE CONGRESS

Participant in Industry Leaders Panel Discussion
Session 2, 23 May 2024

EU SUSTAINABILITY AGREEMENTS
Session 2, 23 May 2024

On 7 December 2023, the European Commission published its Guidelines on Sustainability Agreements in Agriculture. The Guidelines aim to offer guidance to operators in the agrifood sector on how to design their joint sustainability agreements under the newly introduced Article 210a of the Common Markets Organisation (CMO) Regulation. Indeed, the new Article 210a CMO provides for a powerful tool to bolster the green transition of the agrifood sector, providing farmers and other operators in the food supply chain with new avenues for cooperation as well as for new opportunities to ensure an adequate remuneration for their environmental and climate-related ambitions.

The speaker will provide an overview of the main features of this novel tool for strengthening the position of farmers and cooperation within the agrifood chain and of the Commission’s newly published Guidelines, outlining the scope of the exclusion from competition rules and the conditions governing its application.