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“Next generation EU, or Recovery Fund, as we erroneously call it in Italy. And then Farm to Fork, PAC, all terms that might sound abstruse, incomprehensible. For us as well as for the territory of Maristanis. So we studied them, but only to then ask real experts to explain their complex meaning, news and opportunities coming from the European Union". Vania Statzu, environmental economist and vice president of the MEDSEA Foundation, explains the birth of "Themes for the future", the series of in-depth interviews born within the Maristanis project, since 2017 committed to promoting the conservation and sustainable development of wetlands surrounding the Gulf of Oristano.

The project had long planned a series of seminars and workshops, especially focused on farmers and breeders. Training and information that should have taken place live, and that the Covid emergency has made impossible. At the same time, says Vania Statzu, "the pandemic has changed the world, causing the European Union to decide for a turning point in environmental and agricultural issues, finally merged into a strategic vision. The directives on biodiversity and the Farm to Fork strategy, for example, anticipate the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and improve it. Many of the projects planned for the next seven years will have to comply with the idea that links economic development and environmental sustainability”.

The interviews, accompanied by a useful sequence of captions, are already fully available on the MEDSEA YouTube channel. They will then be published weekly in a reduced format on our social network pages. The interviews will analyze the themes of circular economy, the European Green New Deal, the new CAP, the role of producers and consumers in the agricultural and food sector, the much debated (in Italy) “Recovery Fund”. Our questions will be answered by journalists, researchers and academics who have been studying for years the disciplines that link economy, environment and society.

“The recent European initiatives represent a great opportunity. For the first time one gets the impression that the inconsistencies of the various directives have been overcome by an organic vision, a plan that aims to build a green economy for our continent", explains Statzu, who does not hesitate to underline how much Italy and Sardinia have already been able to do. Our companies are among the first in Europe for the commitment invested in organic farming and the circular economy. But the future "cannot be built by private initiative alone", the state must make its contribution. In the past both good and bad practices have characterized our policies, in Italy as in Sardinia. But now, concludes the vice president, "the time has come to accelerate the process, and the ruling class must be ready if it wants to be able to articulate a complex vision that involves all the stakeholders as protagonists, and implement cutting-edge policies that make green the economy of Sardinia, and with it that of the Gulf of Oristano”