1. He understands farming and its pressures
The man from Luxembourg is a farmer’s son and one of seven children reared on the farm, which also included land in neighbouring Belgium. His cousin, Martine Hansen, is Luxembourg’s agriculture minister.
Following the tradition familiar to many Irish farms, he told the IFA council: “I was the youngest, so it was my oldest brother who took over the farm.”
Hansen helped his brother work the farm until he moved abroad to study in his 20s, but still helped out occasionally, milking cows when his brother went on honeymoon.
His brother died last year aged 55 when he fell down the stairs in his home, which Hansen spoke about last November in an emotional response to a question on mental health from Irish MEP Maria Walsh.
The then-commissioner designate referred to the level of stress placed on farmers and people in rural areas, the impact of financial strain caused by large borrowings, the late payment of subsidies and inflexibility on the part of banks.
Acknowledging the high rate of rural suicide, he added: “There are many more people who suffer accidents, who don’t get to sleep, they don’t get to rest, they can’t switch off at any moment, they can’t even go on holidays for two, three days.”
“That those people [farmers] earn 60% of the EU average, it is unacceptable.”
On Thursday, Hansen pledged: “I know the good times, but as well the hardships of the job of being on the farm and I can tell you that I will go there and fight for the farming community, because I have lived it firsthand.
“I feel in my heart really the farming community and that you can count on my commitment to fight for the agriculture community.”
2. He wants stability for farmers
Commissioner Hansen acknowledged the frustration felt by farmers in Ireland and across Europe about the ever-changing schemes, rules and regulations.
“When we talk about the future CAP and we talk about predictability, it is important to say that you only invest if you know what is going to happen in 10 or 20 years. If we do this over seven years, which is usually the MFF [Europe’s Multiannual Financial Framework budget], and sometimes then reform kicks in late, like the last one, where you are barely used to the new procedures, and then it changes again, … that is creating, let's say, some instability,” he said.
Farmers need long-term stability to be confident to invest in their farms, the commissioner acknowledged. \ Barry Cronin \ Philip Doyle
“Therefore, I would urge, and I will propose, in the [CAP] reform, something that is building on what is working well in this Common Agricultural Policy, and just fix those elements that are not working well.
“This will give more predictability and this, I think, will foster, as well, investments and not discourage people from going to this job.”
“Nobody is going to invest in the farm, if there is no predictability,” he said.
3. He’s definitely not in charge of the Mercosur trade deal
When challenged by the IFA on the damage that the Mercosur trade deal will do to Irish agriculture, Commissioner Hansen deftly washed his hands of responsibility for the deal.
“I will say here I'm defending or not defending it. What is very important is to say I'm not going to decide on it, because it's member states and it's going to lead the European Parliament and the arguments we need to be there.
“My task is to … enhance the competitiveness of our own farming community. I want to reduce the administrative burden of our own farming community and you want them to live from their [farm] production.”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, speaking during her visit to Brazil where the Mercosur trade deal was announced.
He pointed out that Europe exports a total of €230bn of agricultural goods and that Europe benefits from a trade surplus of €70bn within that.
However, he did concede that Europe must build in the “right safeguards” and reciprocity into its trade deals.
“It is not acceptable that products are coming in that are treated differently with plant protection, products that are not allowed anymore the European Union and there, we are not consistent. And this inconsistency needs to be addressed.”
4. He’s watching the geopolitical threats to agriculture
The commissioner raised the potential of US tariffs on agri-food products under Donald Trump’s second presidency, as well as tensions between China and Europe.
“We need, generally, a kind of security net for the agriculture sector,” he told the IFA AGM, adding that Donald Trump and his new US administration had raised questions as to what would happen the agriculture sector.
US President Donald Trump with his wife Melania, his son Eric, and his daughter-in-law Lara. \ REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
“Some five, six years ago, we had the AirBus-Boeing case where European agriculture products and there were, as well, some Irish products, dairy and whiskey, for example, that were targeted.
“We need the security that for such threats, not only for the ones for animal diseases [such as foot-and-mouth and bluetongue] but as well for the geopolitical threats that are there,” he said.
“What is happening with China? Are they going to put, as well, import duties on dairy products? We need to be prepared for that,” he added.
5. He wants a level playing field on EU imports
“We have to work on reciprocity when it comes to production standards,” he told Irish farmers this week.
Europe’s high animal welfare standards cost time and money, he said, and when Europe trades with third countries, “our standards should be applied”.
“They are doing it in principle, but I think sometimes we are lacking on the control side,” he said.
"On plant protection productions, we are forbidding more and more products in the European Union, for valid reasons because there are health concerns expressed, but, on the other hand, take sugar beet for example…[farmers] cannot use certain neonics (neonicotindoid pesticides), but, on the other side, there are still imports coming in that are treated with those same products.
Christophe Hansen talking to Caitríona Morrissey of the Irish Farmers Journal about gene editing.
“That is something I believe is not fair,” he said, to rousing applause from the IFA council and guests.
On the gulf between what technology European farmers are permitted to use and farmers globally, such as gene editing, he was frank.
“I think we need, really need now, to be close to that [new genomic techniques], because this will allow us as well, to have maybe less use of pesticides, to have maybe breeds that are more resistant to water stress, for example,” the commissioner told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“That is something we really need to work on, to not miss the train of innovation,” he warned.
6. He has seen Irish farming first-hand and he has a Munster connection
At the outset of the IFA AGM, the commissioner declared that he wanted to be the “boots on the ground Commissioner”, adding: “It is very important to see farming in real life and not just from a desk somewhere in Brussels”.
So he proved by landing in Dublin and travelling immediately to the three-generation Kildare farm of Séamus and Elaine Byrne. Accompanied by Department of Agriculture secretary general Brendan Gleeson, the group discussed their grass-based dairy farming system, generational renewal, protecting water quality and farmers’ need for stability.
Interestingly, Hansen’s deputy head of cabinet Johannes van den Bossche, who was by his side throughout the trip, is married to a Waterford woman.
7. He has a keen interest in Austrian farm succession
Attracting young people into farming and ensuring generational renewal are to the fore of the commissioner’s thoughts. He’s particularly interested in Austria, which he mentioned twice during his session with the IFA.
“We have in the European Union only 12% of EU farmers that are below the age of 40 and the average age is 57 years.
“We have to do something, that young people are once again motivated to go into this job, that it is attractive and that they can make a living out of it. We have huge problems that we face,” he said.
“I have just come back from Austria, where they have around 24% of their farmers that are below of the age of 40,” he pointed out. “They have a very interesting social security system, where it is very attractive, when you are at the age of 65 or something, you give over your farm, you get a better pension.”
Macra president Elaine Houlihan challenging the commissioner on farm succession supports. \ Philip Doyle
Elaine Houlihan of Macra urged him to consider including a mandatory young farmer allocation for all member states in the next CAP, noting: “Today, our Department allocates the bare minimum to young farmers, meaning that less than 2% of the Irish CAP funds in total are contributed to generational renewal, well below the EU average of more than 2.7%.
“Ireland remains the only member state that does not use CAP funding for installation aid.”
8. He wants a bigger CAP budget
The commissioner is not behind the door when it comes to saying farming needs a bigger CAP budget.
“People outside the farming community are saying, well, there's too much money going to the Common Agricultural Policy. But… we have let's say 1% of our GDP is going to the European budget. Let's say roughly one-third of it is going to agriculture. That is 0.3% of our GDP. This is nothing.”
“If we [the EU] wouldn't have this budget for the Common Agricultural Policy, this would cost us way more, because we would be heavily dependent. We would have a lot of unemployment especially in rural areas, and that would be more detrimental to the entirety of our society,” he said on Thursday. “And I think that is very something very important to underline.”
Hansen urged the IFA to put pressure on Ireland’s government to commit more to the EU budget.
However, he urged the IFA to put pressure on Ireland’s government, along with other member states, to commit more to the EU budget.
“I hope, when the government is in place here in Ireland, that you can push them to be very strong when it comes to the agriculture budget, [so] that we have as well the necessary support for this.”
Nonetheless, he pointed out that Europe has growing demands on its overall budget, coming from the security and energy production demands.
9. He doesn’t want agriculture to be in a silo
Hansen is keen to engage with other commissioners whose remit has an impact on agriculture and farmers, name-checking Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall in his opening remarks.
Roswall has taken over the brief from Virginijus Sinkevicius, who paid a painfully brief visit to Ireland in late 2023 and curtly confirmed that the controversial reduction to Ireland’s nitrates limit would go ahead.
“I'm proactively involving the new commissioner for environment in a lot of my activities,” Hansen said. “I took her with me to the council to address certain points [on bioeconomy].
Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall and Commissioner Christophe Hansen at the EU Agri-Food Days, organised by DG AGRI. \ Lukasz Kobus
“I took her to DG AGRI to give her a briefing on the different policies of her remit that are directly impacting the agriculture sector. That is very important, because I think that was not sufficiently done in the last term, and I think that this co-operation is now going to be better.”
10. He's a shrewd politician - and there's a bit of craic in him
For almost an hour, the newly installed commissioner fielded rigorous questioning from Francie Gorman and the IFA national council and he barely skipped a beat. He answered every interrogator by their first name and never ignored a topic.
Revealing a keen eye for detail, he trotted out the names of EU-banned neonicotinoids - clothianidin and thiamethoxam - with the easy familiarity of an agronomist.
Christophe Hansen was quick with a quip or two at the IFA's 70th AGM. \ Philip Doyle
The commissioner drew several laughs from the crowd on the day, including when he recounted how 12-year-old Liam Byrne had tackled him on his family farm earlier that morning.
“He didn't have to go to school this morning and so he asked me ‘could I get a derogation from you for my homework?’”
Later, when Hansen assured the gathered IFA council and guests that he would return to Brussels with “a list” of issues to be addressed on behalf of farmers, he quickly backtracked again, quipping: “But let’s not forget we want to cut down on the paperwork!”
1. He understands farming and its pressures
The man from Luxembourg is a farmer’s son and one of seven children reared on the farm, which also included land in neighbouring Belgium. His cousin, Martine Hansen, is Luxembourg’s agriculture minister.
Following the tradition familiar to many Irish farms, he told the IFA council: “I was the youngest, so it was my oldest brother who took over the farm.”
Hansen helped his brother work the farm until he moved abroad to study in his 20s, but still helped out occasionally, milking cows when his brother went on honeymoon.
His brother died last year aged 55 when he fell down the stairs in his home, which Hansen spoke about last November in an emotional response to a question on mental health from Irish MEP Maria Walsh.
The then-commissioner designate referred to the level of stress placed on farmers and people in rural areas, the impact of financial strain caused by large borrowings, the late payment of subsidies and inflexibility on the part of banks.
Acknowledging the high rate of rural suicide, he added: “There are many more people who suffer accidents, who don’t get to sleep, they don’t get to rest, they can’t switch off at any moment, they can’t even go on holidays for two, three days.”
“That those people [farmers] earn 60% of the EU average, it is unacceptable.”
On Thursday, Hansen pledged: “I know the good times, but as well the hardships of the job of being on the farm and I can tell you that I will go there and fight for the farming community, because I have lived it firsthand.
“I feel in my heart really the farming community and that you can count on my commitment to fight for the agriculture community.”
2. He wants stability for farmers
Commissioner Hansen acknowledged the frustration felt by farmers in Ireland and across Europe about the ever-changing schemes, rules and regulations.
“When we talk about the future CAP and we talk about predictability, it is important to say that you only invest if you know what is going to happen in 10 or 20 years. If we do this over seven years, which is usually the MFF [Europe’s Multiannual Financial Framework budget], and sometimes then reform kicks in late, like the last one, where you are barely used to the new procedures, and then it changes again, … that is creating, let's say, some instability,” he said.
Farmers need long-term stability to be confident to invest in their farms, the commissioner acknowledged. \ Barry Cronin \ Philip Doyle
“Therefore, I would urge, and I will propose, in the [CAP] reform, something that is building on what is working well in this Common Agricultural Policy, and just fix those elements that are not working well.
“This will give more predictability and this, I think, will foster, as well, investments and not discourage people from going to this job.”
“Nobody is going to invest in the farm, if there is no predictability,” he said.
3. He’s definitely not in charge of the Mercosur trade deal
When challenged by the IFA on the damage that the Mercosur trade deal will do to Irish agriculture, Commissioner Hansen deftly washed his hands of responsibility for the deal.
“I will say here I'm defending or not defending it. What is very important is to say I'm not going to decide on it, because it's member states and it's going to lead the European Parliament and the arguments we need to be there.
“My task is to … enhance the competitiveness of our own farming community. I want to reduce the administrative burden of our own farming community and you want them to live from their [farm] production.”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, speaking during her visit to Brazil where the Mercosur trade deal was announced.
He pointed out that Europe exports a total of €230bn of agricultural goods and that Europe benefits from a trade surplus of €70bn within that.
However, he did concede that Europe must build in the “right safeguards” and reciprocity into its trade deals.
“It is not acceptable that products are coming in that are treated differently with plant protection, products that are not allowed anymore the European Union and there, we are not consistent. And this inconsistency needs to be addressed.”
4. He’s watching the geopolitical threats to agriculture
The commissioner raised the potential of US tariffs on agri-food products under Donald Trump’s second presidency, as well as tensions between China and Europe.
“We need, generally, a kind of security net for the agriculture sector,” he told the IFA AGM, adding that Donald Trump and his new US administration had raised questions as to what would happen the agriculture sector.
US President Donald Trump with his wife Melania, his son Eric, and his daughter-in-law Lara. \ REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
“Some five, six years ago, we had the AirBus-Boeing case where European agriculture products and there were, as well, some Irish products, dairy and whiskey, for example, that were targeted.
“We need the security that for such threats, not only for the ones for animal diseases [such as foot-and-mouth and bluetongue] but as well for the geopolitical threats that are there,” he said.
“What is happening with China? Are they going to put, as well, import duties on dairy products? We need to be prepared for that,” he added.
5. He wants a level playing field on EU imports
“We have to work on reciprocity when it comes to production standards,” he told Irish farmers this week.
Europe’s high animal welfare standards cost time and money, he said, and when Europe trades with third countries, “our standards should be applied”.
“They are doing it in principle, but I think sometimes we are lacking on the control side,” he said.
"On plant protection productions, we are forbidding more and more products in the European Union, for valid reasons because there are health concerns expressed, but, on the other hand, take sugar beet for example…[farmers] cannot use certain neonics (neonicotindoid pesticides), but, on the other side, there are still imports coming in that are treated with those same products.
Christophe Hansen talking to Caitríona Morrissey of the Irish Farmers Journal about gene editing.
“That is something I believe is not fair,” he said, to rousing applause from the IFA council and guests.
On the gulf between what technology European farmers are permitted to use and farmers globally, such as gene editing, he was frank.
“I think we need, really need now, to be close to that [new genomic techniques], because this will allow us as well, to have maybe less use of pesticides, to have maybe breeds that are more resistant to water stress, for example,” the commissioner told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“That is something we really need to work on, to not miss the train of innovation,” he warned.
6. He has seen Irish farming first-hand and he has a Munster connection
At the outset of the IFA AGM, the commissioner declared that he wanted to be the “boots on the ground Commissioner”, adding: “It is very important to see farming in real life and not just from a desk somewhere in Brussels”.
So he proved by landing in Dublin and travelling immediately to the three-generation Kildare farm of Séamus and Elaine Byrne. Accompanied by Department of Agriculture secretary general Brendan Gleeson, the group discussed their grass-based dairy farming system, generational renewal, protecting water quality and farmers’ need for stability.
Interestingly, Hansen’s deputy head of cabinet Johannes van den Bossche, who was by his side throughout the trip, is married to a Waterford woman.
7. He has a keen interest in Austrian farm succession
Attracting young people into farming and ensuring generational renewal are to the fore of the commissioner’s thoughts. He’s particularly interested in Austria, which he mentioned twice during his session with the IFA.
“We have in the European Union only 12% of EU farmers that are below the age of 40 and the average age is 57 years.
“We have to do something, that young people are once again motivated to go into this job, that it is attractive and that they can make a living out of it. We have huge problems that we face,” he said.
“I have just come back from Austria, where they have around 24% of their farmers that are below of the age of 40,” he pointed out. “They have a very interesting social security system, where it is very attractive, when you are at the age of 65 or something, you give over your farm, you get a better pension.”
Macra president Elaine Houlihan challenging the commissioner on farm succession supports. \ Philip Doyle
Elaine Houlihan of Macra urged him to consider including a mandatory young farmer allocation for all member states in the next CAP, noting: “Today, our Department allocates the bare minimum to young farmers, meaning that less than 2% of the Irish CAP funds in total are contributed to generational renewal, well below the EU average of more than 2.7%.
“Ireland remains the only member state that does not use CAP funding for installation aid.”
8. He wants a bigger CAP budget
The commissioner is not behind the door when it comes to saying farming needs a bigger CAP budget.
“People outside the farming community are saying, well, there's too much money going to the Common Agricultural Policy. But… we have let's say 1% of our GDP is going to the European budget. Let's say roughly one-third of it is going to agriculture. That is 0.3% of our GDP. This is nothing.”
“If we [the EU] wouldn't have this budget for the Common Agricultural Policy, this would cost us way more, because we would be heavily dependent. We would have a lot of unemployment especially in rural areas, and that would be more detrimental to the entirety of our society,” he said on Thursday. “And I think that is very something very important to underline.”
Hansen urged the IFA to put pressure on Ireland’s government to commit more to the EU budget.
However, he urged the IFA to put pressure on Ireland’s government, along with other member states, to commit more to the EU budget.
“I hope, when the government is in place here in Ireland, that you can push them to be very strong when it comes to the agriculture budget, [so] that we have as well the necessary support for this.”
Nonetheless, he pointed out that Europe has growing demands on its overall budget, coming from the security and energy production demands.
9. He doesn’t want agriculture to be in a silo
Hansen is keen to engage with other commissioners whose remit has an impact on agriculture and farmers, name-checking Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall in his opening remarks.
Roswall has taken over the brief from Virginijus Sinkevicius, who paid a painfully brief visit to Ireland in late 2023 and curtly confirmed that the controversial reduction to Ireland’s nitrates limit would go ahead.
“I'm proactively involving the new commissioner for environment in a lot of my activities,” Hansen said. “I took her with me to the council to address certain points [on bioeconomy].
Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall and Commissioner Christophe Hansen at the EU Agri-Food Days, organised by DG AGRI. \ Lukasz Kobus
“I took her to DG AGRI to give her a briefing on the different policies of her remit that are directly impacting the agriculture sector. That is very important, because I think that was not sufficiently done in the last term, and I think that this co-operation is now going to be better.”
10. He's a shrewd politician - and there's a bit of craic in him
For almost an hour, the newly installed commissioner fielded rigorous questioning from Francie Gorman and the IFA national council and he barely skipped a beat. He answered every interrogator by their first name and never ignored a topic.
Revealing a keen eye for detail, he trotted out the names of EU-banned neonicotinoids - clothianidin and thiamethoxam - with the easy familiarity of an agronomist.
Christophe Hansen was quick with a quip or two at the IFA's 70th AGM. \ Philip Doyle
The commissioner drew several laughs from the crowd on the day, including when he recounted how 12-year-old Liam Byrne had tackled him on his family farm earlier that morning.
“He didn't have to go to school this morning and so he asked me ‘could I get a derogation from you for my homework?’”
Later, when Hansen assured the gathered IFA council and guests that he would return to Brussels with “a list” of issues to be addressed on behalf of farmers, he quickly backtracked again, quipping: “But let’s not forget we want to cut down on the paperwork!”
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