Tag: Agriculture reform

High commodity prices have made European farmers much less dependent on farm subsidies, offering debt-laden countries a unique opportunity to reform the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a new report published yesterday (5 October) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has concluded.

In his first exchange of views with the European Parliament on the reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloş highlighted farmers' potential to deliver the bloc's new economic strategy for 2020.

The EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should be reformed to deliver not only on food but on climate change mitigation, biodiversity protection and energy production too, argues a new report by the RISE foundation, a rural conservation group supported by the European Landowners' Organisation (ELO).

European dairy farmers set hay on fire and spilled milk in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on Monday (21 September) and warned their protest over low milk prices would intensify.

Support to European farmers will not decrease under the revised Common Agricultural policy (CAP) after 2013, said a top official at the Commission's agriculture department, but a redistribution of the "burden-sharing" of aid between the EU and individual member states could be envisaged, he said.

EurActiv presents an overview of the main developments regarding the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): its current priorities, major milestones, key players, hot topics and future priorities.

Emerging issues such as food security and growing consumer calls for quality food should form part of the EU's long-term policy goals, according to a visionary document adopted by European farmers' organisation Copa. 

The EU has gone to "the extreme limit" of the concessions it can make to reach a deal at the World Trade Organization (WTO), argues French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier in an interview with EurActiv France.

A thorough reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is necessary to allow the EU to respond more effectively to rising food prices and internal pressures, according to Ivo Hlavac, the Czech state secretary in charge of agriculture, who spoke to EurActiv France in an interview.

Fewer production-linked payments, more monies for rural development and a scrapping of a requirement to keep a certain percentage of land out of production are part of the Commission's plans to make the EU's agricultural regime more responsive to market forces.

New political measures are needed to ensure that global food demand is met in an environmentally sustainable way, said Franz Fischler, who argued in favour of GMO technology to help produce new food crops that meet changing climatic conditions and can be used in biofuel production.

Europeans are increasingly concerned about climate change and think EU agricultural policies are failing to address rising food costs, according to two new Eurobarometer surveys published yesterday (13 March). Three quarters of Europeans also say they are ready to pay more for greener goods, but few have actually done so, the surveys found. 

The European Commission will, on 20 November, present controversial plans to cut agricultural payments to Europe's biggest farms and shift the money towards rural development projects.

The Commission has criticised US government proposals for a new Farm Bill, saying that larger domestic subsidy cuts would be needed to break the deadlock in world trade talks.

The planned review of the EU’s agricultural policy in 2008 could lead to lower ceilings for farm subsidies after data show that EU funds mainly benefit big businesses.

France has failed to limit the mandate of EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson at the Hong Kong WTO ministerial summit. Germany has joined the UK in its efforts to cut down EU farm aid.