Common Agricultural Policy: Main policy challenges for 2004-2010
Mr John Hontelez, Secretary General of the European Environmental Bureau, believes the main agricultural issues around 2004-2010 might be:
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Mr Hontelez believes the main agricultural issues around 2004 might be:
- Currently, the EU still sells its surplus of agricultural products at artificially low prices outside the Union, undermining of food production in developing countries. From equity point of view, the immediate abolishment of export subsidies is necessary. This also gives the EU leverage and credibilty in the trade negotiations, where the EU demands quality criteria and acceptance of its internal support system based on multifunctionality.
- The EU's extremely strong market protection prevents 3rd World countries from making sufficient revenues for their own sustainable development. The EU should therefore immediately open up its markets for agricultural produce from developing countries. Since EU product quality standards apply to all products on the EU market, the EU should actively assist developing countries with knowledge, finance and debt relief to cope with the EU standards.
- A set of minimum conditions applicable to all direct payments (Cross Compliance) should be developed and implemented across the Member States, including conditions related to environment, animal welfare and cultural landscapes. All member states should be required to apply these conditions as of 2004.
- An EU-wide action plan for organic farming should be developed in parallel with the CAP mid-term review and adopted by the end of 2003. It should include concrete, measurable targets for the expansion of organic farming and should especially address the problem of co-existence between organic and genetically modified crops.
Mr Hontelez believes the main agricultural issues around 2010 might be:
- The EU Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, is a powerful political instrument, which should be used to promote sustainable agriculture on a broad scale. Instead of focusing on production and securing farmers incomes only, it should aim to support quality of products and production methods, food safety, social coherence in rural areas, environment and landscape as well as the livelihood of millions of small-scale farmers outside the European Union.
- Sustainable agriculture in an enlarged EU requires continued economic support; therefore the CAP-budget should not be reduced, but re-directed. By 2010 all production based subsidies should be phased out and replaced by payments under ecological and quality criteria.
- The basis for the new support system should be area payments which are fully decoupled from production, and come under certain environmental conditions. The payments as currently proposed for the new Member States can and should be considered a first step towards such a system.
- In addition to general area payments, rural development should remain as a second pillar under the CAP. It should, however, be set up with more flexibility for regional differences, bottom-up involvement, integrated approaches and environmental considerations. Specific agri-environmental measures should take up at least half of the budget for rural development.
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