CAP and rural development

Summary

The main aims of the new EU rural development policy are:

• to improve agricultural holdings,
• to guarantee the safety and quality of foodstuffs,
• to ensure fair and stable incomes for farmers,
• to ensure that environmental issues are taken into account,
• to develop complementary and alternative activities that generate employment, with a view to slowing the depopulation of the countryside and strengthening the economic and social fabric of rural areas,
• to improve living and working conditions and promote equal opportunities.

Between 4,300 and 4,370 million euro is allocated each year to rural development during the period 2000-06. These measures are financed by the EAGGF Guarantee Section or Guidance Section.

The following rural development measures are supported by the EAGGF:

• early retirement,
• less-favoured areas,
• agri-environment measures,
• afforestation of farmland,
• renovation and development of villages,
• protection and conservation of rural heritage,
• diversification of farm activities,  
• improvement of infrastructure.

Issues

The EU proposes reinforced rural development measures, as support for semi-subsistence farms, for the candidate countries, so that they can reap the benefit of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) even before they meet the EU production standards. Whilst Central and East European countries are only offered 25-35 per cent direct payments from the CAP budget from 2004 to 2006, reaching 100 per cent in 2013, the new members will receive higher rural development subsidies which will help them stabilise farm incomes.

Positions

The Commission argues that a better balance of support between market policy and rural development will increase both the social acceptability of the CAP and the possibility to address consumer, environmental and animal welfare concerns within the second pillar (rural development).

The European Parliament adopted two resolutions on in May 2002, calling for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to be preserved, and for a major shift towards support for sustainable rural development. The two resolutions call for a new, third pillar for the CAP to ensure food quality and safety. They also demand full powers for the European Parliament over the CAP and the agriculture budget. Both resolutions call for more resources to be shifted from market support, which currently accounts for about 90 per cent of the CAP budget, to rural development. The Fiori Resolution also calls for an incomes policy to keep farmers on the land throughout the EU. It calls on the Commission to draft proposals for the post-2006 period aimed at making direct income support part of rural development policy.

The AgriCultural Convention has called on the European Convention to lay the foundations of a Common Agricultural and Rural Policy in the treaties. The AgriCultural Convention has "serious concerns about the negative side effects of the current CAP, and particularly its centrally controlled productivist focus". A new Common Agricultural and Rural Policy (CARP) should be based on the principles of sustainable development, democratic accountability, and should be clearly identified as a community policy. CARP should also enable developing countries fair access to Western markets and development of food security within their own. The AgriCultural Convention proposes that the current WTO round should advocate an integrated approach to rural development and sustainable farming practices across the world.

The biggest EU farmers associations COPA and COGECA say that the Commissions proposals for the CAP mid-term review "completely undermine the commitments made by the European Council when it decided Agenda 2000 at the Berlin Summit". COPA and COGECA consider that the current CAP reform model "is leading to a split between market concerns ("first pillar") on the one hand and ecological and rural development ("second pillar") on the other, with the risk of farms being segregated in a similar way".

Timeline

A thorough reform of the CAP is not expected before 2006 when the EU should adopt its next multi-annual budgetary plan (2007-2013). The next reform will thus also involve the new Member States from Central and Eastern Europe.  

External Links

Non-assigned links

• Italian Presidency:Employment in rural areas under the European Employment Strategy(16 July 2003)
• Council:Council Regulation 7409/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)(May 1999)
• Commission, ScadPlus:Support for rural development
• Commission:Communication Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy, COM(2002) 394 [ FR FR DE
• Commission:Memo: What the mid-term review for sustainable farming will change(10 July 2002) [ FR FR DE
• Commission:The Common Agricultural Policy - 2000 Review[ FR FR DE
• Commission:Agenda 2000: Reform of the CAP
• European Parliament report by MEP Francesco Fiori:Interim situation concerning reform of common market organisations in respect of Agenda 2000
• European Parliament report by MEP María Rodríguez Ramos:Rural development in the framework of Agenda 2000 - interim balance in the EU and the applicant countries
• The Greens:10 steps to reform the CAP[ FR FR DE
• Party of the European Socialists:Discussion paper on reform of the common agricultural policy(17 May 2002)
• European People's Party:Future of agriculture, food quality, and rural life(30 January 2002)
• European Liberal Democrats:A new food and rural policy - An alternative to the CAP - European Liberal Democrat Proposals for the Reform of the CAP(10 July 2001)
• Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture:Portuguese Contribution for the Mid Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy(June 2002)
• French Ministry of Agriculture:La nouvelle réforme de la PAC: L'accord de Berlin[ EN
• French Ministry of Agriculture:Le développement rural[ EN
• German Ministry of Agriculture:Position der Bundesregierung zur Zwischenbewertung der Agenda 2000(27 Februar 2002)
• German Ministry of Agriculture:Germany's ideas about a new European Agricultural Policy(Speech by Renate Künast, Federal Minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, to the International Conference "Where next for European agriculture?" (London, 17 July 2001)
• Italian Government:Agricultural Policy: the run-up to the mid-term review of Agenda 2000(18 February 2002)
• British Government:Future of Farming and Food(29 January 2002)
• British Government:Press release on Future of Farming and Food report(29 January 2002)
• British Ministry of Agriculture:CAP refo rm: potential for effects on environmental impact of farming(February 1999)
• Dutch Government:The Financing of the Common Agricultural Policy after enlargement of the European Union
• COPA-COGECA:The Berlin Summit decisions on Agenda 2000 must be respected(10 July 2002)
• COPA-COGECA strategy paper:Our vision for the future: a sustainable agriculture for all Europeans[ FR FR DE FR DE IT FR DE IT ES
• WWF - Land Use Policy Group:Europe"s rural futures: emerging messages for EU rural development policy(December 2002) [ FR FR DE
• AgriCultural Convention:The Recommendations Document to the Convention on the Future of Europe delivered on the occasion of the plenary session(24 June 2002)
• AgriCultural Convention:Speech delivered on the occasion of the plenary session of the Convention on the Future of Europe by the European AgriCultural Convention(24 June 2002)
• European Environmental Bureau:Greener Fields: EEB Position Paper on further reform of the Common Agriculture Policy(July 2002)
• Friends of the Earth Europe:Agriculture campaign
• WWF, EEB and BirdLife International:Rural Development: Piecemeal Solutions Cannot Deliver!(26 April 2002)
• Euronatur:Towards a new agricultural policy in the European Union[ DE
• Deutsche Bank Research:EU agricultural policy: a plea for real reform(May 2001)
• United Nations:Agriculture and Rural Development
• Food and Agriculture Organisation:Agriculture
• Council of Europe:Our vision for the future: A sustainable agriculture for all Europeans(March 2002)
• OECD:Agriculture, Food and Fisheries