Conseil Européen des Jeunes Agriculteurs

The Conseil Européen des Jeunes Agriculteurs (CEJA) ("European Council of Young Farmers") is an umbrella organisation gathering young farmers from all over Europe and is one of the key advocates for the agricultural sector in Europe. This non-profit organisation has, at present, 28 member organisations and one observer members from EU member states, representing around one million young farmers. Its office is located in Brussels. CEJA was founded in Rome, Italy in 1958. Through a series of bilateral contacts, organisations representing young farmers from the six initial members of the EEC set up a European organisation of young farmers in order to concentrate their action at the European level and to concretely participate in the realisation of European integration. To this end, a "Comité d’Entente" was set up, which was later renamed the "European Council of Young Farmers". Joris Baecke 2009-2013 Matteo Bartolini 2013-2015 Alan Jagoe 2015-2017 Jannes Maes 2017-2021 Samuel Masse 2021 (Jan-Jun) Diana Lenzi 2021-2023 CEJA does not defend nor depend on any political ideology and gathers a broad spectrum of young farmers and rural youth members. It is an international organisation governed by a General Assembly and a Presidium, CEJA’s main decision making bodies, as well as a Presidency which is made up of one President and four Vice-Presidents of different nationalities, elected for a two-year term. Apart from providing services to its members, CEJA stays in regular contact with young farmers’ organisations and agricultural institutions and associations throughout Europe and worldwide. CEJA also has strong links with different international youth organisations. At the Brussels level, partners include the European Rural Coalition and COPA COGECA. At the international level, the organisation will work closely with the World Farmers Organisation, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and Rural Youth Europe, for example.