The European Parliament will be buzzing on Monday and Tuesday, June 13th/14th when the importance of bees to agriculture will be highlighted in a two day conference ‘Bees Caring For Europeans – Europeans Caring for Bees’.

The comprehensive programme will involve Drogheda based Philip McCabe who will speak as President of Apimondia, the body which represents beekeepers across the world.  He will be sharing a platform with Prince Albert of Monaco, who will deliver the keynote address at the conference, and Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan.

Independent MEP Marian Harkin who has actively supported the work of Apimondia and the European Professional Beekeepers Association is concerned that farmers organisations, and some politicians, are not aware that the Common Agricultural Policy budget will be under pressure in the future and that there will be a growing focus on delivery of public goods.

“These public goods will include enhancement of biodiversity, protection of the Environment, and encouragement of pollinators, such as bees, and the Bee conference in the European Parliament is an opportunity to focus on their value to agriculture and the need to ensure that we preserve the maximum number of them in the interest of European agriculture”, she said. It was worrying that despite the commercial and environmental value of bees, insects and butterflies that some MEPs did not favour the precautionary principal in relation to harmful chemicals which can damage bee colonies, she said. “I also think that the main farmers’ organisations in the Republic should follow the example of the Ulster Farmers Union by participating in the All Ireland Pollinator Plan 2015 – 2020 which seeks to protect pollinators and enhance their habitats”, she said.

“MEPs like myself, who are greatly concerned to ensure that the CAP will be funded at the level necessary to sustain farming into the future, need to get the message across to farmers and their organisations the importance of a positive approach towards delivering on the public goods dimension of the CAP alongside their commitment to producing quality traceable food products”, Marian Harkin said.