On 5 December, Jacques Blanc (FR/EPP), mayor of La Canourge and the European Committee of the Regions' rapporteur on pastoralism, spoke at a hearing on wolves held in Brussels by the European Parliament. He called for the Member States to have more resources and more flexibility to manage their populations of large carnivores.

At its October plenary session, the European Committee of the Regions has unanimously adopted an opinion on pastoralism, at the initiative of Jacques Blanc (FR/EPP), mayor of La Canourgue. Maintaining pastoralism is vital for farming across the EU in order to keep rural areas alive, as well as for meeting our environmental and climate-related objectives, argue local government leaders. Keeping grazing going is also conducive to developing tourism in rural areas and helps to safeguard against fires and avalanches. The common agricultural policy (CAP), as well as environmental and social policy, must therefore take greater account of pastoralism.

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.