"European Network of Policy-makers for IPM"
IPM Policy Engagement
The IPMWORKS activities at the European level are consisting of a regular European Parliament (EP) technical dialogue in cooperation with Directorates-General (DG) AGRI/SANTE/ENV/RTD with the aim to create synergies between the IPM Demo Network and the SUD Directive 2009/128/EC, in order to explain technical developments in IPM practices, and identify future areas for improvement.
IPMWORKS has established a European Network of Policy Makers during its lifetime, as reflected in deliverable D7.1 ‘Establishment of a European Network of Policy Makers’. The project achieved its objectives and with outstanding success, often unrivalled by many H2020 projects. It should be noted that this is probably the first time that two EP committees have dedicated a hearing to an H2020 project, as was the case on 23 May 2023, as well as a remarkable debate in the form of a policy seminar on 15 January 2025, with 70 persons in total present in the room and the active participation of 6 MEPs, European Commission members, as well as more than 140 registered online.
IPMWORKS policy engagement activities
May 10th and 11th, 2022: First Policy Dialogue and Demo conference
The first Policy Dialogue and Demo conference under the IPMWORKS project were held (along with the two sister projects NEFERTITI and IPM Decisions), with the participation of several Directorates-General (DG) and Members of the European Parliament (MEP) as well as a number of national policy-makers in Brussels on May 10th and 11th, 2022, including a Farm Demo Conference ‘Sharing Innovation for sustainable agriculture’.
February 13th to 16th, 2023: IPMWORKS Exhibition for European Parliament in Strasbourg
From February 13th to 16th, 2023, IPMWORKS organised the second policy dialogue through an exhibition at the European Parliament in Strasbourg “Towards a Europe without pesticides within the framework of the European Green Deal and the reform of the SUD/SUR directive”, with the support of Claude Gruffat MEP (Greens, France). During the exhibition, IPMWORKS agronomy experts and farmers from across Europe presented the project´s results and good IPM practices face to face and individually to almost 60 MEPs for an average time of 15 minutes per MEP. MEPs were representative of a wide range of countries and political groups, many from the AGRI and ENVI Committees. Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, the Presidents of both AGRI and ENVI Committees and a number the EP rapporteurs also visited the exhibition.
May 23rd, 2023: European Parliament Joint hearing of ENVI and AGRI Committees on IPMWORKS
CIHEAM Zaragoza also put forward a proposal to the EP AGRI and ENVI Committees to hold a dedicated hearing on the IPMWORKS project. This was well received by the Bureau of both AGRI and ENVI Committees resulting in dedicated hearing of both Committees for the IPMWORKS project on May 23rd, 2023. At the time, the European Parliament was debating the regulation Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR). It was a great opportunity to make IPMWORKS better known to MEPs, and to explain how IPM is indeed working across over 22 demo hubs and 250 farms across Europe. Two farmers (a field vegetable producer in Portugal, and a strawberry producer in Flemish Belgium) testified about their motivations and their solutions to effectively reduce the use of pesticides. Eduardo Crisol testified about his role as a Hub Coach/facilitator to promote biocontrol solutions and solutions to bring in auxiliary biodiversity in greenhouses in Andalusia. Two examples of farms, one in mixed farming in France and the other in field potato production in the Netherlands, were used to illustrate the diversity of strategic approaches to significantly reduce the use of pesticides in arable field crops.
May 13th, 2024: IPMWORKS European Policy and Stakeholders’ Seminar
On May 13th, 2024, IPMWORKS held the European Policy Seminar “Boosting IPM implementation in the EU” at COPA COGECA premises in Brussels aiming to engage key agri-food stakeholders in identifying tools, methods and practices to increase the implementation of IPM and reduce pesticides use in the EU. The event, performed in the framework of IPMWORKS WP7 ‘IPM policy engagement and sustainability strategy’ and organized by CIHEAM Zaragoza and ACTA aimed to contribute to boosting the implementation of IPM in the EU through an exchange session with various types of stakeholders.
14th May, 2024: IPM Conference 2024
The IPM Conference 2024, final IPMWORKS conference, was organised jointly by IPMWORKS and IPM Decisions, and took place on 14th May, 2024 in Brussels, i.e. a few months after the SUR proposal had been rejected by the European Parliament, and a few weeks after the protests of European farmers that drove the European Commission to withdraw the targets of halving the use and risk of chemical pesticides and halving the use of more hazardous pesticides.
June 6th, 2024: Specialised training on IPM delivered to EFSA and EU Commission staff under IPMWORKS
On June 6th, 2024, CIHEAM Zaragoza organised a specialised training on IPM for EFSA and EU Commission staff under IPMWORKS. The session had a high level of attendance, with 32 EFSA members present in the room and 8 EC members remotely connected, including DG AGRI, DG SANTE, JRC and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Parliament.
January 15th, 2025: IPMWORKS European Policy Seminar at the European Parliament
On January 15th, 2025 IPMWORKS organised, together with Christophe Clergeau MEP, a European Policy Seminar on “Supporting farmers to reduce pesticides use through effective implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM)”. This event was yet another step forward within the framework of IPMWORKS’ policy engagement activities, led by CIHEAM Zaragoza, with 70 persons in total present in the room and the active participation of 6 MEPs, European Commission members, as well as more that 140 registered online.
Highlights and updates on IPM available here.
Access to IPMWORKS information materials:
Booklet #1
Booklet #2
(Available in the national languages covered by the project)
(Including chapters in the national languages covered by the project)
National stakeholder workshops reports available here
IPMWORKS National Focal Points (NFPs) coordinated National stakeholder workshops in each of the consortium countries with 2 objectives. First, the validation with national/regional/local stakeholders of the IPMWORKS recommendations for scaling IPM adoption through IPM demo networks within the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS). And second, discuss the IPMWORKS strategy for Long Term Sustainability with national/regional/local stakeholders, including Policy Makers in order to make the IPMWORKS network and methodology better known by stakeholders, to present the strategy for Long Term Sustainability, and to discuss about funding solutions for supporting IPMWORKS hubs after the end of the H2020 project.
IPMWORKS Policy recommendations D7.4 available here. (Available soon!)
IPMWORKS aims to advance holistic Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices across Europe through a network of demo hubs engaging farmers and advisors, and collaborative frameworks. This document is the result of task 7.4, in which policy recommendations were formulated concerning both IPM demo hubs and holistic IPM. This document describes how the policy recommendations came into being, in a collaborative effort with all IPMWORKS partners. The recommendations are set down in two policy briefs, which are included in the results section of this document and will be disseminated to policy makers.