[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":111},["ShallowReactive",2],{"pages-69c3ec95a8219074a5e04ccf":3},{"_id":4,"state":5,"name":6,"category":7,"theme":8,"components":9,"keywords":99},"69c3ec95a8219074a5e04ccf","active","Establishment of a European Food Policy Council","discover","european_food_system_dashboard",[10,21,29,35,42,49,54,59,64,69,75],{"type":11,"index":12,"variation":13,"imageURL":14,"title":15,"description":16,"button":18},"header",0,"image_left","https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/8acbb2a1-7483-43c5-a3c4-5f587e5f3010",{"en_GB":6},{"en_GB":17},"- Food system activity: overarching\n- Governance level: European and Multilevel\n- Cluster: Stay within planetary boundaries; Education and awareness; Improve nutrition for better health; Social equity, economic and community support\n- Origin: pan-EU\n- Type of policy intervention: Government services",{"label":19,"URL":20},{"en_GB":20},"",{"type":22,"index":23,"variation":13,"imageURL":24,"title":25,"description":27},"image_and_text",1,"https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/21476cd1-f2b7-42d2-8c58-e802bc771e84",{"en_GB":26},"Context",{"en_GB":28},"The European Food Policy Council (EFPC) represents an institutional innovation to improve EU food policymaking. Current EU agrifood policymaking is characterized by limited participation, entrenched vested interests, sectoral silos, and institutional lock-ins (Clapp et al., 2025; Lang et al., 2009). To address the systemic and cross-sectoral nature of food systems challenges, democratic innovations are needed to broaden participation, rebalance power asymmetries, and better align policymaking with the public interest (Fesenfeld et al., 2023).",{"type":22,"index":30,"variation":13,"imageURL":31,"title":32,"description":33},2,"https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/23f71424-3f85-4935-a54b-8260320fd7d1",{"en_GB":20},{"en_GB":34},"Across Europe, experimentation with participatory food governance is already taking place through the emergence of local Food Policy Councils. At the EU level, calls for a EFPC have gained traction in recent years, but have not yet led to institutionalization (De Schutter, 2019; EESC, 2023).\nOur research identified three key governance gaps in EU agrifood policymaking: limited deliberative quality within existing participatory structures; political reluctance to advance transformative food system change due to concerns about backlash; and weak vertical integration of food policy across governance levels. Not just more dialogue, but better-connected and more structured dialogue is needed.",{"type":36,"index":37,"variation":38,"URL":20,"imageURL":39,"title":40},"image_with_link",3,"title_top_image_bottom","https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/a523d8be-0d4a-4fd5-8a58-e4eee323e742",{"en_GB":41},"A complementary governance architecture: ",{"type":43,"index":44,"variation":45,"imageURL":20,"title":46,"description":47},"title_and_text",4,"title_image_description",{"en_GB":20},{"en_GB":48},"To establish a EFPC in the current institutional landscape, the “Roadmap for a European Food Policy Council” proposes a governance innovation centred on establishing an inclusive, participatory food policy making process representing stakeholders, citizens, scientists, and local actors, ensuring that EU food policies are evidence-based and aligned with the public interest. The EFPC architecture rests on five complementary governance components:\n1.\tThe European Board on Agriculture and Food (EBAF) articulates organized stakeholder interests at EU level and ensures policy feasibility. \n2.\tCitizens’ panels bring a deliberative public-interest perspective through randomly selected participants from across the EU. \n3.\tThe Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) serves as a science–policy interface. \n4.\tA European Food Policy Council Platform, linking the EU policy level with local Food Policy Councils, would provide grounding of EU-level food policies in implementation realities and enable the scaling-up of local innovation. \n5.\tThese four bodies would be complemented by a dedicated Coordination Body, responsible for monitoring outputs, strengthening linkages, and ensuring follow-up. ",{"type":36,"index":50,"variation":38,"URL":20,"imageURL":51,"title":52},5,"https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/d864ee25-18cf-4212-9577-cb8fc5806b31",{"en_GB":53},"Reflections",{"type":43,"index":55,"variation":45,"imageURL":20,"title":56,"description":57},6,{"en_GB":20},{"en_GB":58},"The value of this governance configuration lies in its functional complementarity. By interlocking distinct perspectives—agrifood stakeholders, citizens, scientists, and local practitioners—it balances different forms of knowledge and strengthens public-interest representation in EU food policymaking. The overall aim is not to create an entirely new institutional layer, but to strengthen and connect existing mechanisms while addressing key gaps in participation, coordination, and knowledge integration. A more coordinated and inclusive food governance architecture would not only enhance policy effectiveness and legitimacy, but also facilitate the transition to a resilient, just, and sustainable European food system.",{"type":36,"index":60,"variation":38,"URL":20,"imageURL":61,"title":62},7,"https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/ca30b857-5511-466f-b338-94ca4f1f3f59",{"en_GB":63},"Roadmap",{"type":43,"index":65,"variation":45,"imageURL":20,"title":66,"description":67},8,{"en_GB":20},{"en_GB":68},"To operationalise this governance architecture, the Roadmap identifies targeted reforms of existing institutions for the European Board on Agriculture and Food (EBAF), Citizens’ Panels, and the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR), alongside the creation of new structures for a European Food Policy Council Platform and a Coordination Body. \nTo enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of the **EBAF** as the stakeholder-engagement forum of in the EFPC, targeted procedural reforms are required to address serious shortcoming, including reducing power asymmetries and strengthen inclusiveness.\n**Citizens’ Panels** should be closely linked to concrete policy initiatives so that deliberations take place at moments where they can meaningfully influence decision making, while clear follow-up mechanisms ensure that recommendations are systematically considered. \n**SCAR’s** role as a science–policy interface should be more clearly operationalised and strategically embedded in EU food policymaking processes to effectively contribute to the EFPC architecture.\nA **European Food Policy Council Platform** would strengthen vertical integration in EU food governance and systematically integrate territorial experience into European policymaking, by providing a structured space for exchange among existing national and local Food Policy Councils across Europe. This Platform should be created as a new institutional component within the EFPC architecture and could be hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee.\nFinally, a dedicated **Coordination Body**, potentially hosted jointly by the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, would ensure coherence across the architecture by monitoring outputs, facilitating exchanges between the different bodies, and supporting follow-up within the EU policy cycle. \nThe Roadmap also **highlights ongoing EU initiatives that could be strategically leveraged** to build political momentum and outlines potential steps for gradually establishing the European Food Policy Council.",{"type":43,"index":70,"variation":45,"imageURL":20,"title":71,"description":73},9,{"en_GB":72},"References",{"en_GB":74},"- Clapp, J., Vriezen, R., Laila, A., Conti, C., Gordon, L., Hicks, C., & Rao, N. (2025). Corporate concentration and power matter for agency in food systems. Food Policy, 134, 102897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102897\n- De Schutter, O. (2019). TOWARDS A COMMON FOOD POLICY FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION. https://ipes-food.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CFP_FullReport.pdf\n- EESC. (2023). Opinion Paper: Towards a European Food Policy Council as a new governance model in the future EU Framework on Sustainable Food Systems. https://dm-publicapi.eesc.europa.eu/v1/documents/EESC-2023-00895-00-00-AC-TRA-EN.docx/content\n- Fesenfeld, L. P., Candel, J., & Gaupp, F. (2023). Governance principles for accelerating food systems transformation in the European Union. Nature Food, 4(10), 826–829. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00850-6\n- Lang, T., Barling, D., & Caraher, M. (2009). Food Policy: Integrating health, environment and society. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567882.001.0001",{"type":76,"index":77,"variation":78,"title":79,"contact1":81,"contact2":87,"contact3":93},"contacts",10,"title_top",{"en_GB":80},"Contacts",{"imageURL":82,"name":83,"description":85},"https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/771281e8-fca5-4ec7-a45c-0addca312f67",{"en_GB":84},"Jeroen Candel",{"en_GB":86},"Associate professor of food and agricultural policy​ Wageningen University",{"imageURL":88,"name":89,"description":91},"https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/070c31d2-1352-4c17-9374-f11c3a05860d",{"en_GB":90},"Polina Sokolkina",{"en_GB":92},"Projects Officer EPHA",{"imageURL":94,"name":95,"description":97},"https://planeateu.retool.com/api/file/f328a2d5-9550-45b2-aac6-fdececadb8aa",{"en_GB":96},"Olivia Riemer",{"en_GB":98},"Programm Lead – True Cost Accounting & Food Systems Transformation",[100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110],"european","multilevel","food policy council","stay within planetary boundaries","education and awareness","improve nutrition for better health","social equity","economic and community support","pan-EU","government services","policy intervention",1776157874104]