​At the last meeting of the Plenary Session of the Committee of the Regions on 22 March 2017, there was a debate with Mr Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner responsible for Health and Food Safety. On behalf of the EA group  Mr Marek Olszewski, Mayor of Lubicz Municipality took the floor. 
Mayor Olszewski said that " The issue of food security requires a comprehensive approach. This is linked to the recognition of the concept of sustainable development as an imperative political paradigm on the European level.  I believe that the provision of safe food serve the cause of solidarity-based society.  Recognising the importance of a coherent European food safety policy I would emphasis the role of regional and local authorities, in particular the rural ones in practical terms like planning, implementation and monitoring of local development strategies, for example those based on short food chains’."

In his intervention he stressed that "The European Union is today the most comprehensible and strict system for the control of food and its origin, which obviously results from EU risk management skills.  However, this system is costly. It is therefore generally recognised in EU food crowding out better but more expensive food outside the EU often lower quality and precarious but cheaper. European consumers enjoy a high quality and safe food standards but they trust may be dipped. Europe is a global importer and exporter of food. Better food is pushed out of the market by inferior products that are imported. Only through continual innovation and ensuring conditions of fair competitiveness vis-à-vis our farmers and the food industry, Europe will be in a position to provide sufficient high-quality food at good prices."