Highlights

The Council calls for a robust, effective and transparent Team Europe response to global food insecurity comprising the following four strands of action:

1. Solidarity through emergency relief and support for affordability;

2. Boosting sustainable production, resilience and food systems transformation;

3. Facilitating trade by helping Ukraine export agricultural goods via different land routes and EU ports and by promoting open global trade in food and fertilisers; and

4. Effective multilateralism. These four strands are intended to be mutually supportive and to integrate short, medium and longer-term responses.

The Council supports the Team Europe response to global food insecurity and calls on the Commission, the EEAS and the Member States to:

a) provide the necessary support to the UN Global Crisis Response Group and operationalise the strands of action as outlined in these conclusions, including within FARM and the Global Alliance for Food Security;

b) prioritise their financial support to address global food security including immediate humanitarian needs, including financial and technical assistance for food-importing countries where necessary, as well as medium to long-term sustainable food systems and enhanced local production for better resilience, and exploring all available funding sources;

c) deliver country and regional tailor-made responses in a Team Europe approach and, whenever possible, through Team Europe initiatives;

d) set up jointly a monitoring system, based on existing OECD-DAC data and guidelines, to ensure funding accountability and transparency;

e) intensify joint communication efforts at multilateral, regional and country level in order to address perceptions and concerns in partner countries; urgently strengthen the efforts of the EEAS to monitor and counter Russia’s information manipulation campaigns aimed at diverting the responsibility for the food security crisis away from its war of aggression against Ukraine

f) report regularly to the Council on the implementation of the joint response.