The 2nd NAT commission meeting will take place on Tuesday 4 March 2025 at the European Committee of the Regions, Rue Belliard 99-101, Brussels room JDE 52.
This meeting will be fully on-site. The public can follow the meeting in the listening room JDE53.
For security reasons you need contact the NAT secretariat at the latest on the 27 February 2025 if you wish to participate in person.
This meeting will also be webstreamed.
Highlights of the meeting on 4 March 2025.
The following opinions will be discussed and adopted:
First discussion and adoption:
- Healthcare workforce: regional challenges and solutions, Birgitta SACRÉDEUS (SE/EPP)
The EU faces a health workforce deficit, with an estimated shortage of 1.2 million doctors, nurses and midwives as of 2022. While not all regions experience them to the same degree, many territories —especially rural and remote areas—face significant staffing issues. Regional demographics, economic conditions, and geographic realities compound the situation and require tailor-made solutions.
Additionally, regions alongside the borders (home to one third of EU population) are a natural testbed for healthcare cooperation addressing imbalances in healthcare provision and enhancing workforce mobility.
The new political guidelines of the European Commission, putting Europe competitiveness and security at the heart of any policy intervention, will require well-functioning health systems, capable of withstanding health as well as geopolitical crises and able to restructure, recover and bounce back in the aftermath. Such elasticity and resilience can only be achieved if heath systems are properly staffed. This means in turn that the Union, its Member States and their regions must combine their efforts across education, training, skills, employment, digitalisation and other policy fields to address all underlying reasons for existing staff shortages.
- Strengthen farmers' position in the agri-food supply chain, Loredana CAPONE (IT/PSE)
As a reaction to farm protests and supported by the Strategic Dialogue on the future of agriculture, the European Commission published its legislative proposals to strengthen farmers' position in the agri-food supply chain and enhance cross-border enforcement against unfair trading practices (UTPs) on 11 December 2024.
The first proposal amends Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products, Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy. The proposed amendments modify only specific aspects of a limited number of provisions in the existing Regulations. They enhance and further strengthen existing provisions regarding contracts involving farmers and their organisations with other actors in the chain, as well as reinforce the bargaining power of producer organisations and their associations, reduce the administrative burden for their recognition, and establish an inducive framework for voluntary schemes and agreements aimed at improving farmers' remuneration and social sustainability initiatives.
The second proposal the Directive (EU) 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain with the view to ensuring that the enforcement authorities have the necessary tools to gather information, find an infringement and impose and enforce fines and other equally effective penalties against buyers located in another Member State.