Members of the Commission for Natural Resources (NAT) of the European Committee of the Regions met in Brussels for the 24rd NAT Commission meeting. The CoR expressed its view that ageing is a hidden opportunity, African swine fever (ASF) is a threat and a challenge at local, regional, national and European level and that maintaining pastoralism is crucial for agriculture throughout the EU. Ossi Martikainen (FI/ALDE), the Chair of the NAT Commission, led the meeting.

Although overproduction of milk is forecast for this spring, Karl-Heinz Lambertz (BE/PES), president of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), believes that the decision by the Council of Ministers on 29 January to temporarily suspend automatic buying-in of skimmed milk powder, without any parallel measures to reduce production, risks triggering another crisis in the dairy sector.