Christophe Hansen, Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Luxembourg
Luxembourg’s Christophe Hansen had a truly impressive hearing. | Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
Luxembourg’s Christophe Hansen had a truly impressive hearing, at various moments brain-wrinklingly interesting, gut-wrenchingly funny, and heart-breakingly sad. The 42-year-old won a half dozen rounds of applause during the session as he deftly addressed tricky policy problems and personalities.
After a polarizing year for EU agriculture, the MEP could’ve fallen foul of several issues. The Socialists were grumpy that their Spitzenkandidat, Nicolas Schmit, hadn’t got Luxembourg’s nomination. He chose to ignore the Patriots and ESN folk in his pre-hearing lobbying. And as its rapporteur in ENVI, he’s tied to the increasingly controversial (now-delayed) deforestation law.
But it all went swimmingly. Hansen stuck to the center on most issues, promising fair pricing for farmers, environmental mirror clauses on agrifood imports, and generational renewal in farming. He veered conservative on some issues, refusing to legislate on Europeans’ meat consumption, downplaying the scale of livestock emissions, and criticizing the idea of an agri-emissions trading system, or ETS.
He leaned progressive on others, defending his deforestation law, hinting that farmers’ fears over Ukraine’s accession were overblown, and even coming out in favor of the EU-Mercosur free trade deal (a near-taboo in agrifood circles).
One moment will stay with MEPs though. Asked about the high number of farmer suicides, Hansen grew solemn and told the story of his brother who took over the family farm then spent decades working exhausting hours, facing constant insecurity, and navigating byzantine regulation. Last year, aged 55, he fell down his stairs and died. It was an accident, Hansen said, related to the stress of keeping the family farm going — and an experience that informs Hansen’s own view of agriculture.
— By Alessandro Ford
EP committee verdict: Yes