Tag: common agricultural policy

Agreement on the first major reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in a decade won political approval in June 2013 after months of haggling over how ambitious the policy would be on overhauling direct payments, ending quotas, and making farmers more environmentally accountable. The long road to a deal means many policies won’t be implemented before 2015.

EU negotiators sealed a deal yesterday (26 June) on future farm policy after months of haggling over how ambitious the policy would be on ending quotas, overhauling direct payments to farmers and making agriculture more environmentally responsible.

This month’s floods along the Danube and other Central European rivers could add up to the costliest weather-related disaster since 1999, with the cost to agriculture alone expected to exceed €1 billion. Farm groups representatives pressed EU negotiators to reach a final deal on the Common Agricultural Policy, arguing that its direct-payments scheme helps sustain farmers in times of climate uncertainty.

The European Commission has ordered Italy to collect €1.4 billion in fines from dairy companies for exceeding EU milk production limits over a period of 15 years, money the government has already paid to the bloc.

Unless there is substantial movement on greening measures and other critical issues in the still-evolving Common Agricultural Policy for 2014-2020, the objective of creating a new purpose and rationale for the CAP is sliding into the sand, argues David Baldock.

Butter mountains and milk lakes. Those were the images invoked in the European Parliament this week by opponents of extending vineyard planting limits and protections for sugar beet farmers.

Bowing to criticism that it was “undemocratic”, the European Parliament’s agriculture committee agreed Monday night (11 March) to allow the full house to vote on hundreds of amendments to the EU’s future farm policy, many of them aimed at reversing the panel’s earlier decisions. EurActiv reports from Strasbourg.

With negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) moving towards an end-game, it is not too late to forge a deal that will help European farmers and the environment, argues Tony Long.

Food and beverage companies are lining up against a proposal to extend the EU's sugar quota to 2020, reversing an earlier agreement to phase it out by 2015. A vote in the European Parliament is scheduled later this month. The procurement chief for one of Europe’s biggest food companies tells EurActiv that extending protections for sugar is bad for consumers, businesses and the environment.

Around €100 billion out of a global CAP budget of €363 billion for the period 2014-2020 will be dedicated to the protection of natural resources after last week's agreement on the EU's long term budget, writes Dacian Cioloş. The challenge now is to define concrete measures to make a real difference for the environment and to secure the long term competitiveness of EU farmers.

French President François Hollande faces the awkward prospect of walking away from this week's European Union summit having accepted a cut in the bloc's agricultural spending for the next seven years.

A coalition of grape growers, farm groups and major wine-producing countries appear to have won concessions to European Commission proposals for liberalising vine planting rights that are due to expire by 2016.

SPECIAL REPORT / Some EU national governments and lawmakers are pushing to weaken proposals intended to create natural defences against pesticides and fertilisers in crop fields. But they should reconsider their opposition to buffer strips and other natural areas, green advocates say.

Germany and France have agreed to keep the European Union farming budget at its current level, following a meeting between their agriculture ministers in Berlin on Wednesday (10 October).

If the scheduled extraordinary European Council in November does not agree on a framework for the 2014-2020 budget or if the European Parliament denies its approval, the future of the EU will be held hostage to an unstable and unmanageable environment, argues Ivailo Kalfin.

The Common Agricultural Policy, now in its 50th year, is due to get a greener makeover as it enters a new decade. But much hinges on the fate of the EU’s 2014-2020 budget, says Sofoclis Aletraris, the Cypriot agriculture minister whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

An extraordinary summit of EU heads of state and governments in November will focus on the European Union budget for 2014-2020, it emerged following a meeting of European Affairs ministers held in Nicosia yesterday (30 August).

With European Union institutions locked in ongoing debates about making the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) more sustainable, researchers say policymakers may be overlooking the importance ponds and wetlands play in making farms more environmentally friendly.

The European Court of Auditors today (17 April) dealt a blow to the European Commission’s overhaul of agricultural policies, saying in an opinion that the proposals are “too complex” and expose the EU to possible abuse in its direct payments scheme.

Proper crop nutrition and sharing of knowledge and technology between developing and developed countries can help address the food needs of the planet’s growing population, says a top researcher for the Oslo-based fertiliser company Yara.

Farmers' organisations worry that the European Commission’s plans to make the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) more environmentally friendly could leave producers drowning in paperwork.

A British House of Lords panel is urging the European Commission to reconsider some of its key agricultural proposals, calling for more robust spending on research and cuts in direct payments to farmers.

Farmers are likely to see the annual payment they receive from the government fall in coming years, UK farming minister Jim Paice said, adding he favoured its eventual abolition as global food prices rise.