Tag: CAPkeyword

A Group of 22 European Union countries called yesterday (10 December) for an "ambitious" new farm policy in the bloc to face global food and climate challenges, but left aside divisive budgetary issues for future talks.

The European Union should resist the temptation to cut support for its common agricultural policy and instead give farmers the right tools to increase food production in Europe, EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told EurActiv in an interview.

The first exchange of views on the post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) last week showed that the European Parliament may well use its new powers to block any significant budget cuts for the policy.

One of the second Barroso Commission's main tasks will be to propose a major overhaul of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with its biggest beneficiary, France, preparing for a re-run of previous battles on budget cuts.

NGOs have described EU agricultural export subsidies as inconsistent with a recent €14 billion commitment by the Group of Eight (G8) countries to assisting farmers in developing countries, aimed at combating world hunger and promoting agricultural development.

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.

Europe's farm chief yesterday (2 June) asked EU ministers to decide whether future agricultural subsidies should be used to provide 'public goods' or bolster incomes, particularly at times of financial strain.

Governments are misusing EU rural development funds by channelling money to farm lobbies rather than using it for projects to improve biodiversity, argues a global alliance of national conservation NGOs in a new study. 

Grain farmers and cattle breeders are staging protests today (31 March) against a French plan to redistribute monies from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). EurActiv France reports.

After marathon discussions lead by French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier last night (19 November), the EU 27 agreed to shift money to rural development as of 2009 and progressively liberalise the EU dairy sector before milk production quotas expire in 2015.

Pointing to the ongoing commodity price crisis and the huge diversity of situations faced by European farmers, Parliament's agiculture committee yesterday (7 October) called on the Commission to scale down its proposed reform of agricultural policy.

The Commission has rejected the notion that farmers should implement river basin management schemes in exchange for agricultural subsidies, despite increasing fears over water shortages and droughts.

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.

The EU budget is outdated, does not represent current Community needs and should be reformed at its core by addressing the decision-making procedures, argues CEPS Director Daniel Gros.

European small farmers organisations have denounced the Commission's moves to reduce milk prices, claiming they come at the expense of small producers and profit only industrial milk farms, the agri-food industry and retailers.

The European Parliament yesterday (11 October) adopted a report on how EU agricultural expenditures could be made more transparent to the public by making information on beneficiaries available online.

A World Bank report suggests that growth is likely to slow down, with inflationary pressures set to rise among the central and eastern European states that recently joined the EU.

Policies to support biofuels in the United States are costly and do not help much towards alleviating dependency on imported petroleum or reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, a think-tank warns.

A proposal to disclose the identity of those at the receiving end of EU funds - mainly farmers and fishermen - could face opposition from member states such as France which currently claim privacy over agriculture payments.

On 2 December, the UK government presented a report on a sustainable model of European agriculture. Commissioner Fischer Boel said it is not the right moment to start the debate.

Just a week before the Commission decides on a European initiative on transparency, Commissioner Kallas has asked France to publish its list of CAP beneficiaries "for all citizens".

"Copy me, I'm the best and you're wrong" - that is the UK government's attitude towards its guests at the Hampton Court Social Council, on 27 October 2005, says Kirsty Hughes in this commentary for EurActiv. The 24 other EU countries are rather unlikely to follow such a charming invitation. New Labour's economic policy still places the Blair government to the right of European Christian Democrats and in the camp of right-wing populists like Italy's Berlusconi or Spain's Aznar. 

US negotiators have offered to cut farm subsidies by 60%. The move marks the beginning of the countdown to the crucial WTO summit in December in Hong Kong. 

The head of the UK presidency, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is expected to attempt to find a compromise for the EU's 2007-2013 budgetary framework in early October.