Tag: CAP reform

The European Parliament’s agriculture committee has voted to weaken key environmental proposals made by the European Commission while agreeing to reduce subsidies to big farms. These and other proposals will be considered by the full Parliament in March.

Farmers from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia protested as EU leaders gathered in Brussels yesterday (22 November), calling for equal treatment of Baltic farmers in the bloc's long-term budget. At the moment, they receive a quarter of what some farmers in other member states receive.

Manufacturers have recognised their failure to address concerns over the environmental and health risks of pesticides, promising "a huge change of mindset" in engaging with society while sticking to their traditional argument that their products are safe to use.

European consumers who have little appetite for genetically modified foods are indirectly eating the crops anyway through imported feed crops, say members of the Greens group in the European Parliament who are calling for a shift in trade and farming practices.

The European Commission's long-awaited proposals to overhaul the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has come under criticism for falling short on objectives to distribute money more fairly, improve the sector's competitiveness and promote greener farming practices.

The European Commission's long-awaited proposals to overhaul the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have left most EU politicians and stakeholders disappointed.

Farmers in Western countries such as France could see their subsidies cut by up to 7% as more money is being channeled to Central and Eastern European states. EU farm Commissioner Dacian Cioloş spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview ahead of proposals today to reform the EU's Common Agricultural policy for 2014-2020.

Plans to reform the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) do not go far enough to level out differences in direct payments between the bloc's 'old' and 'new' members, said national parliamentarians from the bloc's Central and Eastern member countries.

As the European Commission prepares to publish proposals for the 2014-2020 EU budget next week, environmental NGOs expect the EU executive to put its money where its mouth is: by ending harmful subsidies and steering one trillion euros towards protecting biodiversity, increasing resource efficiency and combating climate change.

The debate on reforming the Common Agricultural Policy has so far ignored the need for generational renewal of an endangered profession, warns Joris Baecke of the European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) in an interview with EurActiv.

The Czech Republic is strongly opposed to capping EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments for large farms, a stance which has seen it attract a blocking minority with countries such as Germany, the UK and Italy. In this commentary, Czech Deputy Agriculture Minister and former Czech EU Affairs Minister Juraj Chmiel gives the reasons for his country's stance. 

Eastern European countries have waited long enough to get their fair share of the EU's farm budget, said Ivan Fuksa, the Czech agriculture minister, in an interview with EurActiv.cz. He dismissed European Commission proposals for an additional transition period to even out differences in payments between 'new' and 'old' EU members.

The European Commission yesterday (18 November) unveiled its blueprint for reforming the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), proposing to increase subsidies to smaller East European farmers and to link direct payments to environmental and food security goals.

With a wave of post-crisis austerity sweeping Europe, deep cuts to public spending are the order of the day, and for some the EU's much-criticised Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a prime target for cost savings.

The EU's future farm policy should only support active farmers rather than benefiting wealthy landowners such as the UK royal family or Prince Albert of Monaco, according to Pekka Pesonen. The head of EU farmers' lobby Copa-Cogeca spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The EU's Common Agricultural Policy should be reformed to allow local farm cooperatives to deliver more sustainable food production, shorter food miles and more economic development in rural areas, Professor Michael Dower told EurActiv in an interview.

Poland's agriculture minister has accused France and Germany of trying to exert undue pressure on other governments in talks on reforming the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from 2013.

Looking to the future, large recipient countries like France will have no choice but to accept a partial re-nationalisation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or otherwise risk paying hefty hand-outs to Eastern EU farmers, says Jack Thurston, co-founder of an NGO tracking the bloc's farm subsidies.

Farm aid should be reduced to about one third of the European Union's budget and spending could be shifted towards research and innovation, the EU's budget chief said on Monday (6 September) in an interview with Reuters.

After an initial contribution by the European Parliament, Brussels will play host to a major stakeholder debate on the future of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on Monday and Tuesday.

Promoting economic growth, job creation and sustainability in the agri-food sector are the main goals in planned reform of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Spanish EU Presidency has said.

The European Union's economic crisis will create allies for a British government seeking to streamline the bloc's farm policy in upcoming reform talks, the new UK agriculture minister said on Monday (17 May).

The EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should be reformed in a way that unlocks the potential of rural areas to contribute to the bloc's economic growth strategy for 2020, European Commission officials told agriculture journalists last week.

The EU should force other world agricultural powers to adopt similar environmental rules if they wish to export to Europe, the chair of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, Paolo De Castro, told EurActiv in an interview.