Resilience is the ability of an individual, a household, a community, a country or a region to withstand, adapt, and quickly recover from stresses and shocks such as drought, violence, conflict or natural disaster. The European Commission's new resilience communication outlines ten steps that will increase resilience and reduce the vulnerability of the world's most vulnerable people. These steps include support for the design of national resilience strategies, disaster management plans and efficient early-warning systems in disaster-prone countries, as well as putting forward innovative approaches to risk management through collaboration with the insurance industry.

Quotas for sugar beet producers must be prolonged to allow beet producers time to adapt to new market realities, and EU farm spending should be frozen in real terms for 2014-2020, said many Agriculture Committee MEPs in the EU farm policy reform debate that took place on 17-18 September 2012. In the debate, MEPs advocated retaining sugar quotas for EU beet farmers until 2020. Farmers have invested a lot in their capacity to produce sugar and a decision to phase out quotas in 2015 would hurt them, many MEPs argued.

At the beginning of September 2012, the EU Court of Justice clarified the legal requirements for the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the Member States of the European Union, such as the MON 810 maize varieties. The Court confirmed that additional national authorisation procedures, introduced on top of the existing approval process conducted by the European authorities (European Food Safety Authority) to be unlawful.

European Parliament
- 8 October: Committee on Development
- 9 October: Committee on Foreign Affairs
- 9 October: Committee on Fisheries
- 9 October: Special Hearing on Land Security in Developing Countries, followed by an exchange of views with Commissioner Piebalgs on the Millennium Development Goals
- 10 October: Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
- 11 October: Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

ACP Group
- 11 October: Sustainable Economic Development Dynamics in ACP Regions

You can also read our newspaper “CTA Brussels Daily” (fed by our Twitter account), follow our new Facebook group CTABrussels and our Twitter account CTABrussels to receive up-to-date information on EU-ACP events.

To improve information sharing and promote networking, the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in collaboration with FAO, AgriCord and other partners will organise a high-level panel in Brussels on 16 October 2012, in the context of the European Development Days. Various panelists will give their perspectives on how they see the future of farmers in the context of new drivers affecting food production, trade and the environment.

The 29th Brussels Development Briefing on 'Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security' was successfully held on 27 September. In collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CTA organised this Briefing. In a blog post written on the Briefing, CCAFS states that there was a general consensus among all panelists that institutions and policies are among the major obstacles in developing countries for rolling out and upscaling CSA practices.

European Parliament
- 2 October :  Committee on Foreign affairs
ACP Group
- 1 October: Management meeting
- 2 October: Bureau of the Committee of Ambassadors
- 4 October:  Committee of Ambassadors
- 5 October: Committee of Ambassadors’ W/G on the preparation of the 7th ACP Summit

You can also read our newspaper “CTA Brussels Daily” (fed by our Twitter account), follow our new Facebook group CTABrussels and our Twitter account CTABrussels to receive up-to-date information on EU-ACP events.

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), which officially opened in August 2005, has, as its mission, the coordination of the Caribbean region’s response to climate change. During the course of the last Brussels Development Briefing, entitled “Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security: proven approaches and new investments”, we had the opportunity to speak to Carlos Fuller, who is one of the centre's experts. He sat down with us to explain the CCCCC's main ongoing projects and developments to date.

Following the Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, which took place in Hanoi in early September 2012, the Netherlands delegation took the opportunity during the last meeting of the Council on Agriculture and fisheries and briefed the ministers on the main conclusions made.

European Parliament
-24 September :  Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
-19 September :  Committee on Fisheries
Council of ministers
-19 September :  Agriculture and Fisheries Council  (AGRI-FISH), (Brussels)
-24 September : General Affairs Council (GAC) (Brussels)
- 26 September: COREPER I
- 26 and 28 September :  COREPER II
ACP Group
- 24 September: Management meeting
- 25 September: Joint ACP-EC Tecnhical  Sugar experts meeting
- 25 September: S/C  Sustainable Development
- 26 September: S/C Trade and commodity Protocols
- 27 September: Pacific ACP Trade officials
- 28 September: Committee of Ambasssadors’W/G on the preparation of the 7TH ACP Summit
Research events
- 25 September: Organic and Law Input Agriculture: Implementing Innovation to respond EU challenges (Lanarca)
- 26 September: High Level Conference on Rural Development and sustainable farming approaches for Mediterranean areas and beyond (Lanarca)
-27 September : Brussels Development Briefing: Climate change, agriculture and food security

You can also read our newspaper “CTA Brussels Daily” (fed by our Twitter account), follow our new Facebook group CTABrussels and our Twitter account CTABrussels to receive up-to-date information on EU-ACP events.