There should be no U-turn on the European Union's biofuels policy said Mariann Fischer Boel, the Commissioner responsible for Agriculture and Rural Development, speaking in Brussels today. Ms Fischer Boel was made her comments at the "Who will feed the World? The answers from the EU" event at the European Parliament.

"We currently use less than 1 per cent of our cereal production to make bioethanol. We use two-thirds of our rapeseed crop to make biodiesel, but in fact European rapeseed production accounts for about 2 per cent of global oilseed demand. So this is not something to shake the markets, and freeing this up for the food market will make little difference to prices.

"Moreover, with high market prices for food and feed crops, the interest of European farmers in producing first-generation biofuels is now certainly highest in the case of marginal land not suitable for food and feed crops", she said.

"A central element of the European Commission's proposals for the biofuel sector is a sustainability scheme. This would involve close monitoring of the economic, social and environmental results of our biofuel policy – in the European Union and outside."

In conclusion she said; "And let's make no mistake: Europe needs a good biofuel policy – for reasons of climate change and fuel security. Some of the related policy decisions are difficult, but we can't duck them, just as we can't change our policies according to the latest turn in the public debate."