Tag: agriculture

The Parliament's Agriculture Committee has adopted a report on the Commission's proposed overhaul of the European wine sector, proposing a compromise on many of the draft's most disputed measures, including the grubbing-up of vines and designations of origin and labelling.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated his willingness to start discussions on a major overhaul of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), hinting at a shift from subsidies to guarantees for higher market prices.

Citizens made their contribution on the future of Europe’s rural areas through a panel, making concrete recommendations to EU policy-makers. However, it remains to be seen how they may be taken up by the institutions.

A Parliament hearing on 5 March 2007 explored ways to minimise the pesticide residues that can still be found beyond established limits in soil or groundwater. While NGOs called for a Europe-wide reduction in pesticide use, manufacturers said that training was the best option, rather than a ban which would cripple European agriculture.

Further CAP reforms, such as abolishing outdated production quotas, eliminating country-specific arrangements and capping subsidies, will be inevitable in coming years, both to comply with the Commission's Better Regulation Agenda and to obtain a broader societal acceptance of the EU's farm policy. EU leaders have agreed to carry out a "health check" of the CAP in 2008.

The EU remains first and foremost an organisation for funding farming in the 15 'old' member states, according to figures published on the bloc's 2005 budget. 

161.9 million euros in payments under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy has been misspent by Member States and must be reimbursed, says the Commission.

The collapse of the Doha round would also call into question the future of the WTO itself, writes Aurore Wanlin in a policy brief for the think tank the Centre for European Reform.

'Old' EU countries are still the biggest beneficiaries of EU money, the Commission's allocated expenditure figures for 2004 say. Spending on the EU administration exceeds the allocation to many of the smaller EU countries.

EU environment ministers voted, on 24 June 2005, with a large majority against a Commission proposal to allow eight types of genetically modified crops for use in the Union.

The accession of the 10 new member states has increased the Union’s useful agricultural area by 29%, the farming population by 52% and the agricultural GDP by only 7%. From these three figures, three problems immediately appear: low productivity levels, a potentially considerable financial cost for the Union and a strong socio-political sensitivity. In the CEEC, enlargement also means the disappearance of the last tariff barriers to agricultural produce with the countries of the EU-15 as well as the setting up of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This issue of Revue Elargissement by MINEFI-DREE offers a review of the situation, and it also outlines the possible consequences of introducing the CAP and the prospects for the agricultural sectors of these countries.