Farmers Outline Vision for EU Agricultural Policy

The current policy review, dubbed the CAP Health Check, aims to further modernise the policy and assess whether adjustments are needed to ensure that it is still relevant for new challenges such as climate change. Launched in late 2007, the review recommends further cutting subsidies (to encourage farmers to respond to demand fluctutations), bringing more money to rural development policy and abolishing production quotas for products such as milk.

The 2008 health check was agreed upon when the EU 25 reviewed the bloc's long-term budget (2007-2013) in 2005. They agreed to carry out the CAP mid-term review before in-depth reform in 2013 (the start of the new long-term budget).

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. There had not been any debate on the CAP's objectives for more than fifty years and the signature of the Treaty of Rome, deplored Copa President Jean-Michel Lemétayer. Speaking at the European farmers' congress  in Brussels on 30 September, he said the policy had been reformed several times "without the heads of state and government ever really standing up for European food security or quality".

But in fifty years a lot of things had changed, he said, referring to the enlargement of the EU from an initial six member states to the current 27, bringing with it increased territorial diversity.
Thus ahead of next year's talks on the future of the CAP after 2013, European farming organisations adopted a declaration   outlining their vision of the future of EU agricultural policy.
Though some may be tempted by the renationalisation of agriculture in the current context of rising food prices, in "no way" could this be a serious option, said Lemétayer, who instead called for:

• Policymakers to be convinced of the need to have a strong Common Agricultural Policy for the EU;
• reflection on the importance of the "rules of the game" and the sector's regulation mechanisms;
• guarantees that trade in agriculture and agricultural products would continue to be governed by rules, and;
• the introduction of plant health requirements for the CAP to guarantee the quality of goods.
  

• Health and sanitary risks;
• clilmate change challenges;
• market challenges, and;

Positions:
Speaking at the conference, Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's agriculture and rural development  commissioner, said: "We agree that we must set objectives for the CAP and not let policy be driven purely by budgetary questions. If you ever read press articles claiming that I see everything through the spectacles of an accountant, don't believe them. It's true that I often warn about the political pressures which the CAP budget is under. I make no apology for this: we must be realistic. But I also believe that we must set out our stall of ideas in good time, and thereby occupy the key ground in the budget debate. If we have no idea of what we want to do, no-one will give us the money to do it! On the other hand, if we present some good, clear thinking, and link our ideas to what the public cares about, I really believe we can have a policy which gives farmers the long-term support they need for success and prosperity."

"There is no strong Europe without strong agriculture," said French Minister for Agriculture Michel Barnier, describing agriculture as Europe's "strategic asset". But he also noted that a strong European agricultural policy would only be possible if the EU institutions were strong. For them to be strong, the Lisbon Treaty was a must, he said. Agricultural goods were not "goods as usual" and therefore market regulation measures could not be the same as for the other goods, Barnier stated, adding: "We need rules" when it comes down to food and nutrition. "Agriculture needs politics."