Dear EWRS members and friends of our Society, 

with Christmas and the end of this year approaching, I would like to wish you a festive time, well-deserved rest after the demanding year and good prospects for 2023!  

These classical wishes have an extraordinary importance nowadays. After two years of COVID restrictions, everybody was expecting a normalization of societal life and a restart of economies, however the Russian aggression in Ukraine in February opened again many uncertainties for the present and future. In February and March, we were immediate witnesses of rapid growth of prices of agricultural commodities by more than 50%, followed by crisis of agricultural trade in the Black Sea region and increased food scarcity in African countries dependent on imports. On top of that, increased prices of energy, enormous costs or even unavailability of mineral fertilizers and pesticides led to an increase of food prices which became new reality regardless of current temporal decrease of commodity prices. The agricultural sector is highly dependent on external energy inputs, so we can expect that European agricultural will probably face more difficulties than other geographical regions because we have to import almost all industrial raw materials, gas, oil, etc. As weed scientists working in applied research, we have a great opportunity and obligation to contribute in these political discussions about the future face of agriculture, considering proportionally all major aspects of sustainability: economic, environmental, and societal. I wish we had better conditions for our research and communication in the coming year 2023, but I had a good feeling from the last three events I attended, our Symposium in Athens, the EWRS Glyphosate meeting, and 8th IWSS congress, that we are on the right path.  

Rising to this challenge, we have many events planned for the next year. Very soon, in February, we are going to visit the venue for our next Symposium in Lleida to establish a collaboration between the EWRS SciCom and local organization team led by Prof. Dr. Jordi Recasens. Upcoming EWRS & IWGC Training course “Weed genomics” being held in February in Antalya and the Workshop of the WG “Weed Vegetation and Biodiversity” in May in Prague have already been announced on the EWRS website and first early birds have already applied for participation. I am sure, both workshops have great potential to be very exciting. “Soil Seed Bank, Germination and Early Growth” WG is planning to announce the revival of the modelling workshop and symposia that was cancelled in 2020 to be this June. Watch for updates on the website. Renewal of the working group with focus on biological control and use of natural products for weed control is expected and the first meeting is planned, probably in autumn, with the kind help of Prof. Dr. Heinz Müller-Schärer from Switzerland. The date of foundation meeting will be announced soon and all researchers interested in this area are welcomed to participate. It looks like we will have many opportunities to meet again face to face and contribute to the mission of our Society. Many thanks all of you who actively participate in the Society life, make it strong and increase its awareness!  

My best wishes to the good health, prosperity, and peace in 2023 to all of you! 

Josef Soukup, EWRS President