Luca Zaia was born in Conegliano, in Provence of Treviso, the 27th March 1968.

He took his A levels at the Scuola Enologica "Giovanni Battista Cerletti" of Conegliano, the first oenological school of Italy and one of the oldest European ones. Among its former students we can find: Vittorio Ronchi, Alto Commissario dell’Alimentazione in the De Gasperi governments, and one of its founders is one of the most important figures of Italian oenology Giovanni Battista Cerletti and the Minister Luigi Luzzati who served under the Sonnino government.

In 1993 he takes his degree in Science of animal production at the Veterinary faculty of the University of Udine before attending a managerial course held by a Bocconi scholar, Mario Unnia, an expert of management and company strategy.

LUCA ZAIA, PUBLIC MANAGER

In 1995 he is Councillor for Agriculture for the Province of Treviso and in 1998 the youngest President of Province in Italy, working in different sectors: from agriculture to safety, from tourism to education.

In his career as public manager he has been in front line in the implementation of the managerial principles that are concretely realized in “decision-making processes” like the definition of the Strategic Plan of the Province of Treviso and the master planning project that involved the most important cities of Europe (Barcelona, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Lion, Stockholm, Seville, Valencia).

In the Marca, Zaia starts up the national and European pilot plan of road safety, that enabled the Province to pass from being the Italian province with the highest number of road accidents to holding the record for being the one that, in the shortest time, managed to reduce by 2/3 the victims of road accidents. Thanks to the awareness campaign on road safety the Marca has claimed numerous international acknowledgments.

Zaia’s mission has always been to valorise and support the territorial identities, through various projects: promoting the creation of the Consorzio di tutela of the Radicchio di Treviso and the Castelfranco Veneto, the creation of the first oenology university course of the country and outlining the success master plan of the Province.

It is not by chance that, from June 2005 to May 2008, while serving as Vice president of the Regional Committee of Veneto, he was in charge of the ‘regional identity’. Zaia has also been regional councillor for tourist and foreign trade policies, the agricultural and zootechny policies, the rural development plans, the EU LEADER programme, and economy and mountain development.

LUCA ZAIA, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURAL, FOOD AND FORESTRY POLICIES

Since the 8th of May 2008 Zaia is the Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Polices in the IV Berlusconi government.

Main aim of his political action is to put agriculture and the real economy once again at the centre of the national and international debate.

For this reason since he was appointed he has been personally involved in the Eu debates and discussions. Brussels became his second home. Thanks to this punctual presence, Italy obtained from Europe more than 4 billion and 300 million euro, to invest in innovation, quality and aggregation, and in measures that favour the generational change and the return of the young people to cultivating the land.

On an international level, after his nomination Zaia, Italy organized and welcomed the Venice fisheries summit, the Verona meeting on tobacco and the first agricultural G8 at Cison di Valmarino in province of Treviso.

The most obvious result of the Minister’s work in the Eu has been the negotiation for the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) reform. Italy managed to obtain all it wanted on all the four main topics debated: the future of the milk quotas; the modulation (that is the transfer of the resources from the direct aids to the Rural Development); the measures that support regional or sectorial problems (article 68) and the recovery of the unused funds.

The resolution of milk quotas issue, a problem that was going on for more than a quarter of a century, is one of the great battles won by the Minister, first within the Eu and then on the national level. Because of the insufficient quota assigned to our Country 25 years ago, Italy has paid the Eu 2,492 million euro. The State is still owned 1 billion and 671 million euro. The Minister asked and obtained from Europe a 1% increase of annual production and the possibility, exclusive to Italy, to use the total quota rise (617,000 tons) already from the next campaign. The 30th of January 2009, the decree on the milk quotas was unanimously approved by the Council of Ministers and it then became part of the ‘maxiemendamento’ to the Law Decree on competitiveness approved the 2nd of April. The 9 April 2009 the law n. 33 came in force, it designs “urgent interventions on milk production and instalment of the debit of the dairy sector”. It is based on three fundamental principles: not to increase the milk production in order to preserve the prices; not to realize a ‘sanatoria’ for those who have in these past overproduced, but an onerous instalment procedure, and economically support the companies that have indebted themselves to buy quotas.

With the first meeting of the G8 Agriculture Ministers in history, held in Cison di Valmarino (Treviso) from the 18 to the 20 of April 2009, the G8 Ministers, together with those of the G5 – Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa – and Argentina, Australia and Egypt refocused on the agricultural production. Italy played a big role since it presented a productive model that is aligned with the global market, but at the same time it preserves the single productive identities. The Minsters signed a final Declaration, that establishes new important lines of action for what concerns the fight against speculation, defence of the productive identities in the respect of the free market, centrality of the agricultural production, improvement of the efficiency of the agrifood chains, strengthening of the role of the agricultural families and the small farmers, improve land access, strengthening the role of women and promoting the entrance of young people in agriculture. The meeting was also attended by the Eu Agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel and the vice Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, as President of the Council of the European Union, together with the main international institutions: World Bank, Fao, Ifad, Oecd, Wfp, the High Level Task Force on world food security of the United Nations and the African Union.

The Rural national network programme has been implemented and, as part of it, an international conference was organised in Treviso the 7 and 8 October 2008: “The new challenges of rural development, between Health Check and Eu budget reform”.

The European negotiations carried also another important result: the implementation of the funds destined to Italy for the aids to the poor is now 129,2 million euro, double what is was in 2008 (approximately 66,4 million euro).

To protect the environment and in order to favour a better coordination inside the European Community, Minister Zaia has proposed a task force between the police forces of the Mediterranean Countries more at risk of fires, ready to intervene in case of an emergency.

Zaia inaugurates the zero tolerance season against those who commit food frauds. He triggered a thicker net of controls and a more intense collaboration between the police forces. From September 2008 to May 2009 a total of 27 maxi seizure operations have been carried out ending with the seizure of expired products, or in bad conservation state or of unknown origin or content.

Beside the intensification of controls, Zaia works on an ad hoc Bill that, within the strengthening of the competitiveness of the food sector (currently the DdL is under examination of the Chamber of Deputies - A.C.2260), contains new norms on the obligation to have on the labels the origin of food products, be it transformed or non transformed products. He became the spokesperson of the ‘do not lead to error’ philosophy. The new rules on labelling agrifood products will also have a deterrent function of the commercial behaviours commercially or the illegal ones that damage the consumers.

The Minister works to rationalize the agrifood chains rows and to reduce their length, to advantage of the consumers and the environment. Regarding the environment, on initiative of the Minister, for one year there has been the suspension of the neonicotinoids (tanning seeds probably responsible of the bees’ death). Zaia introduces in the financial manoeuvre 2009-2011 a found of 2 million euro for the sector, (fund that initially had been eliminated for budgetary reasons).

To defend the environment of the single territories, under the Zaia’s guidance, the Conference State-Regions signed an understanding for the reorder of the Consortia of Reclamation that best answers the needs of the single territories.

From May 2008 there has been the Eu registration of four new DOP and four new PGI.

The Minister started, inside of the Ministry, a deep change in personnel policies. He started in all the offices, a survey of the economic accounting so that the costs of the structure are noticeable, and knowable. From June 2008 to March 2009, there has been an average reduction of more than 50% of the number of the staff absences; in the month of February 2009, with 56.9% less absences, the Ministry of agricultural food and forestry policies was the State administration with the biggest recovery of presences. One director general's office and 8 managing offices will be eliminated, that determine greater burdens in terms of running expense. In December 2008, for the first time there was a “three year cost plan”, that fixed saving aims till 2011 and that has allowed, already beginning from 2008, an average saving of 2,5 million euro per year. Less service cars, with a saving of 122.000 euro. From December 2008 there has been a recycling operation of all the paper consumed in the ministry: in the first four months we have recovered and recycled 48 quintals of paper. Many procedures have been computerised and, from August 2008, the Ministry has its Intranet. 100 years after its foundation, moreover, a restructuring of the entire Palace of Agriculture has been started, in order to be more efficient, safe and save energy.