Tag: CAP reform

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has announced the British Government's support for a written constitution for the European Union.

10 out of 15 EU Agriculture Ministers opposed the Commission's proposal for a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), arguing it could seriously damage the interests of farmers.

The Commission presented its reform plans for the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on 10 July. With some radical changes but sticking to the fundamentals of the CAP, the Commission intends to bring the agricultural policy closer to its citizens.

On 10 July, the European Farm Commissioner, Franz Fischler, is expected to propose a radical reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, de-coupling farm subsidies and production.

The European Commission decided on 1 July to allow Poland to start managing its pre-accession farm aid programme (SAPARD), amounting to 171.6 million euro annually.

France presented its CAP anti-reform proposals at the Agriculture Council in Luxembourg on 27 June, arguing that the EU should keep the current agricultural policy until 2006.

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, has warned at a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Leszek Miller, that extending the full EU subsidies to the candidate countries would be impossible to finance.

The 15 EU Foreign Ministers will try to reach an agreement on farm subsidies for the candidate countries and on fight against illegal immigration at their last meeting before the Seville Summit.

The 15 EU Foreign Ministers failed to reach an agreement on subsidies to Eastern European farmers, with net payers calling for a reform of the EU's agricultural policy ahead of enlargement.

Germany and the Netherlands called for an immediate reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) at the Agricultural Convention in Brussels.

The European Parliament's Agriculture Committee has backed the Commission's proposal to gradually introduce farm subsidies to the future EU Member States over a period of 10 years.

The Commission has proposed a Council Regulation on additional liberalisation of agricultural trade with Lithuania. The agreement will completely liberalise trade in most agricultural products between the EU and Lithuania.

The European Commission decided on 16 April to allow the Czech Republic and Slovakia to start implementing its pre-accession farm aid programme (SAPARD).

EU Agriculture Commissioner, Franz Fischler, underlined the benefits of the Commission's proposal for the enlargement negotiations on agriculture in an address to the Farm Ministers of the 13 candidate countries.

The German Agriculture Minister, Renate Künast, has called for a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to reduce direct support for production, increase support for rural development and introduce national co-financing.

COPA and COGECA, the largest farmers' organisations in the EU, have called for the preservation of the Common Agricultural Policy that is under pressure for a thorough reform because of the enlargement and WTO talks.

The debate on the EU agricultural policy reform has started de facto if not officially with the deliberations on the positions of the future Member States in an enlarged Union. Italy is the first of the no-reform proponents to present its position to the Agriculture Council on 18 February, opening a battle with reform-minded supporters of more environment-friendly farming.

The Agriculture Ministers of the 15 Member States started a debate on enlargement at their meeting on 18 February in Brussels, that also opens the question of agricultural reform after 2006. On the same day, Agriculture Ministers from 12 candidate countries presented their views of the Commission's proposal for negotiations of agricultural issues to the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

EU finance ministers rejected the Commission's proposal for direct payments to farmers in the new Member States at their first discussion of the financial framework for enlargement on 12 February. Whilst most ministers gave their broad support to the Commission's budgetary package, several Member States insisted that the proposal phased in subsidies too fast, and that the candidate countries should not receive budgetary compensation after enlargement.

Poland's Minister of Agriculture, Jaroslaw Kalinowski, urged the EU on 11 February to reconsider its plan to limit the access of new Member States to farm subsidies. Before meeting the EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler in Brussels, Mr Kalinowski stated that Polish farmers should receive full subsidies by 2006.