Tuesday meetings

Woke up a bit groggy. The time difference is getting better, but I am staying up too late - so I am not helping myself any! My first two meetings were with officials in the biofuel/renewable policy areas of both DG agriculture and DG energy. The EU has a goal of reaching 20% renewables by 2020, and 10% biofuel use in transportation. You can tell that since this directive came out, many people are working on the implementation side of things. Each of the 27 member states have different targets to reach according to where they are now and their potential for growth. I learned a lot about the EU's forestry resource - which is actually growing! in many places it is quite aged as well so they are actually encouraging member states to harvest more. Who'd a thought! I had a great lunch with Felix Bloch, the USA rep for DG agriculture. we had a nice conversation about his upcoming trip to DC to talk to USDA about wine issues, and other US related issues - including attempts to create reciprical organic standards - which is difficult given the US actually has standards that are more strict! where am i!? :)