Common Agriculture Policy after 2013: free market will not save European agriculture

Published: 19 March 2010 y., Friday

Subrendę javai  Australijoje
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), as the first EU institution, rose to the challenge of providing a comprehensive vision for the future of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), in advance of the European Commission's papers on the matter, due to be issued later this year and in 2011. The EESC's opinion on this divisive and highly controversial issue was adopted with near-unanimity, a move that EESC Vice-President Seppo Kallio called “historical”.

The current funding for the CAP expires in 2013 and discussions on its future go hand in hand with a review of the EU budget for the post-2013 era. The EESC adamantly states that all debate on the post-2013 CAP needs to begin with a precise definition of its ultimate goal, which, once subscribed to, should be followed by an agreement on a set of policy instruments and a financial settlement. “It is wrong to assign money to a specific policy and only then to divide it up between different measures and among Member States”, said rapporteur Lutz Ribbe (Various Interests Group, Germany). “Agriculture policy is about more than allocating money”.

The European agricultural model, that is sustainable farming, designed to provide varied and safe bio-food whilst at the same time preserving landscape and rural areas is under threat, since it is increasingly subject to market conditions, says the Committee. Food prices do not include the cost of tasks that farmers are required to fulfil, such as environmental protection and landscape conservation. As a result, multifunctional agriculture that Europe prides itself on might, unless conditions alter, push many farmers into poverty and out of farming. “There is an ever-growing gulf between the lip-service paid to the European agricultural model on the one hand and the reality of day-to-day farm life on the other”, stated Lutz Ribbe.

The Committee insists on the need to put an end to the race for higher productivity at all costs, which is also what society at large wants as it does not embrace the use of GMOs, hormones and growth stimulants that such a race inevitably entails. A sixth of all jobs in Europe is related directly or indirectly to agriculture, and if agricultural production disappears, then the related jobs in the upstream and downstream sectors will disappear too. It therefore calls on Europe's policymakers to ensure that a farming sector is sustainable and provides sufficient income for farmers as well as pointing to specific measures to achieve this.

The Committee notes that, despite the market stabilisation being enshrined in the EU treaty as one of the CAP's aims, the dramatic decrease in a number of stabilisation tools has led to speculation and volatility. In turn, consumers have not profited from it as it has not translated into lower consumer prices. Support measures need to be maintained and beefed up in the light of ongoing developments on the agricultural markets. In the same vein, increasing concentration in retail, which has given the sector an unmatched bargaining power, turned farmers from “price-makers” into “price takers”. The Committee calls on the European Commission to use its power to make pricing more transparent and look into these contractual practices.

Any reform of the CAP has to aim towards making it more transparent and understandable, insists the Committee. The future CAP must do away with the current system in which there is no uniform scheme of agricultural support and payments differ considerably, both in the amount and the way of calculating between the EU-15 and the EU-12. The Committee argues that any future payments must be exclusively linked to the delivery of services required by preserving European agricultural model, for example high food safety requirements, and decisions are needed to determine which services will be eligible for such payments.

The EESC also calls for investment support for farms to make them as productive and sustainable as possible, as well as to reverse past damage to rural areas from intensive farming methods.

 

Šaltinis: europa.eu
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

The most popular articles

Commission approves amendment to Lithuanian crisis measure allowing small amounts of aid

The European Commission has approved, under EC Treaty state aid rules, an amendment to a Lithuanian scheme allowing aid to be granted of up to €500 000 per company, initially approved on 8 June 2009. more »

The EU and Russia reinforce the Early Warning Mechanism to improve prevention and management in case of an energy crisis

As agreed by the President of the European Commission and the President of the Russian Federation during the last EU-Russia Summit in Khabarovsk, the EU and Russia have strengthened the current dispositions under the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue to prevent and manage potential energy crises, with an enhanced Early Warning Mechanism. more »

EU provides EUR 1 billion for trade facilitation in developing countries

The European Union has today presented to the World Trade Organization the trade facilitation projects it has financed between 2006 and 2008. more »

Commission approves Romanian state guarantee to Ford Romania

The European Commission has authorised, under the EC Treaty’s rules on state aid, a planned state guarantee by Romania to enable Ford Romania SA to access a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). more »

Getting out of the red

The economic crisis has left many countries with budget deficits well over the 3% limit. The commission is proposing deadlines for reducing the gaps. more »

In October 2009 prices for consumer goods and services went down by 0.4 per cent

Statistics Lithuania informs that in October 2009, against September, prices for consumer goods and services went down by 0.4 per cent. more »

Lithuania and China aim at strengthening economic and trade dialogue

Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Šarūnas Adomavičius took part in bilateral political consultations with representatives from foreign affairs, commerce and transport ministries of the People’s Republic of China. more »

Excessive Deficit Procedure steps: the Stability and Growth Pact as the anchor for fiscal exit strategies

Under the budgetary surveillance powers conferred by the EU Treaty, the European Commission today proposed to the Council to set 2013 as the deadline for the correction of the budget deficits in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Portugal. more »

World Bank and Moldova Join Forces to Fight Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture

A joint partnership between the World Bank, the Moldovan Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and the Ministry of Environment was launched in Moldova’s capital in the late days of October. more »

World Bank Group President Zoellick Launches Global Urban Strategy at Inaugural Infrastructure Finance Summit

World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick today joins senior officials from the Government of Singapore to launch a new global urban strategy that will guide Bank advisory services and financing in the sector over the next decade. more »