foodwatch standing against far-right influence

The text was sent out on 11/12/2024 via newsletter by Jörg Rohwedder, Executive Director foodwatch International.

A tumultuous end to a tumultuous year in the EU: On 1st December 2024 the new Commissioners started their 5-year mandate. They were approved by the European Parliament, by the lowest majority in the Parliament's history. The European Parliament which was also elected in 2024 is further to the political right than ever before. The Commission they have approved includes Commissioners from far-right parties in key positions.   

Even though far right parties get elected in a democratic way, it does not mean that they are parties representing and upholding democratic values. They aim to create authoritarian states that would drastically limit individual rights and civil society's space. Fighting against them is both a moral imperative and a necessity to defend human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.  

The EU is built on these core values and foodwatch is using this important moment at the start of the new political mandate, to underline that this is the foundation on which we work. 

Drawing our lines against the far right

For foodwatch, upholding our values in all the work we do is of tantamount importance.  

We regret President Ursula von der Leyen’s (VdL’s) decision to give the role of Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare to Olivér Várhelyi, who comes from a political party that does not uphold core EU values. We will be more vigilant and inventive than ever to continue our battle for the improvement of the food system and we will not legitimise him in this role. Both in the Commission and in the European Parliament, we will implement our foodwatch cordon sanitaire in terms of where we cooperate – but we will be watching closely to expose, call out, and hold accountable all the power holders.  

foodwatch will, of course, continue to be the watchdog of food safety and keep on fighting for greater transparency, protecting and informing consumers and holding companies accountable.

foodwatch keeps on fighting for safe, healthy and affordable food for all

The last commission led by VdL did not keep many legislative promises: sustainable food systems, sustainable use of pesticides regulation and food information to consumers all vanished from the agenda without explanation. foodwatch will continue to hold the Commission accountable to the non-action on a mandatory and harmonised Nutri-Score for the EU – at a time when nutrition related diseases are at an all-time high and the pressure on public health systems is on the rise. 

The European Court of Auditors recently reported on food labelling in the EU and backed up foodwatch’s concerns of the last decade that consumers are constantly being misled with nutrition and health claims and a plethora of meaningless labels. The Commission has committed during the last mandate (November 2024) to act in the next two years. We are watching! 

In February 2025, after the first 100 days, VdL will release her vision for EU agriculture. This must be an ambitious vision and not one that gets abandoned when the going gets tough. Failure to reduce and exit pesticides soon, will mean more and more problems with contaminated groundwater and loss of biodiversity. foodwatch proposes a crop-by-crop vision which can move forward with the easy crops first – and not add to the infighting of EU member states about who does what, when and how much. 

All these areas, as well as continuing the fight against contamination of our food with mineral oils, fraudulent practices (like illegally filtered bottled water), and controversial health additives, are more than enough to keep our small team busy over the coming years.