Document: 2020-09-08-CEMA-Common_European_Agricultural_Data_Space.pdf

During a DG CNECT-DG AGRI Expert Workshop, CEMA had a chance to propose its vision for the future

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The European Commission has been moving forward in its work to draft the first Work Programme of the Digital Europe Programme. To this end, on 8th September 2020 DG CNECT and DG AGRI organized an Expert Workshop on a Common European Agricultural Data Space, bringing together key experts, scientists, IT and data specialists working in the agri-food sector.

Participants had a chance to present their positions on how the EC should support the building and implementation of a Common European data space in the agricultural sector, intended to facilitate the trustworthy pooling and sharing of agricultural data throughout the whole value-chain.

CEMA presented its position, which, in addition to answering questions from the EC, underlined the importance of:

  • Keeping the Legacy of achieved compatibility with ISOBUS
  • Automatic consent for full data exchange and how this can be made possible given the GDPR with its one-to-one consent only
  • The safety and security of mobile machinery that are a cornerstone for recording and exchanging data
  • Working with standards and lean regulatory tools
  • Working on global solutions as our industry is also a global solution provider

At the workshop the current gaps and other elements that are needed for achieving a well-functioning European Agricultural Data Space were discussed; it provided some much-needed clarifications on the value of public data in agriculture on the technologies to be deployed to sustain a Data Space in agriculture (e.g.: Farm-Management-Systems, Data Platforms, Data Infrastructures, and how to implement them), on the required standards, and on the concept of trust of farmers in the full respect of the “EU Code of Conduct on agricultural data sharing by contractual agreement” (promoted by COPA-COGECA, CEMA and other partners), as well as on data sovereignty (control of the flow of own data, GDPR issues). It also touched upon the need for adequate investments and demonstrators.

You can read the full position of CEMA HERE, and see the slides presented HERE.

The full workshop report, participant presentations and position papers are available HERE.