On 10th March (8h30-13h00), the next Brussels Development Briefing will discuss the key role Biodiversity plays in rural development, especially for ACP countries.  Issues at stake include: the relationship between poverty and biodiversity, the effects of biodiversity loss in hunger and food insecurity, governance issues, the Intellectual Property Rights’ challenge, farmers rights and economic incentives, policies and legislation at the national, regional and global levels. Speakers will come from UNEP, Bioversity International, Tropenbos International, Practical Action, EC, IUCN, Member of Parliament from Cameroun…

Our video guest this week is Mr. François Stepman, European co-manager PAEPARD project. The Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development (Phase II) is to build joint African-European multi-stakeholder partnerships in agricultural research for development. PAEPARD II nurtures partnerships to increase the quantity and quality of joint proposals (leading to more funded initiatives).

On 4 February 2010, Mr Karel De Gucht gave a lecture at the College of Europe in Bruges, emphasising the importance of free trade for continuous economic recovery after the financial crisis of 2009, the utility of concluding the Doha round in the prospective of protectionist threats, and how the new role of the European Parliament in co-legislation could strengthen the legitimacy of trade policies.

The year 2009 has been a remarkable for the EU. Allegedly, it moved towards more intense cooperation between heads of state and a weakening of the Commission. However, we also saw the appointment of first European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy and EU ‘Minister’ of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton.