A prestigious victory but…European agriculture has obtained a prestigious victory but the battle over its future has only just begun. It has been successful because Heads of State and governments have included it in the fundamental elements in the EUROPE 2020 strategy. The European Council's conclusions last week dedicated a specific paragraph to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Cohesion Policy (paragraph 1-5 - G, No. 2531 in our EUROPE/Documents series) and therefore include the two sectors in the EU's future action areas, which according to certain quarters, should be excluded from priority Community funding. What the Summit actually approved was an affirmation of principle: “a viable, productive and competitive agriculture sector will make an important contribution to the new strategy, given the growth and employment potential of rural zones”.
At the end of the summit, Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his astonishment that farming had been left out of the 2020 Strategy preparatory document, although this sector represents a powerful European economic factor, without which, the EU could be accused of protectionism because its agricultural imports largely exceed its exports (EUROPE 10107). A few days earlier, the French president had exaggerated somewhat, indicating that he would not have hesitated using the “empty chair” policy (allusion to a measure temporarily employed by General de Gaulle) to confront a Europe intent on dismantling the CAP. Nonetheless, he was, that day, addressing farmers' organisations and in such a context a touch of overstatement is almost instinctive. The option to drastically reduce the CAP is no longer, in fact, on the European agenda and the debate is now more focused on what reforms to introduce for making farming take new environmental requirements and product quality into account (EUROPE 10098 and 10099).
Divergences over essential aspects. Including agriculture in the subjects for debate at the European Council confirms the increasingly direct involvement of governments chiefs in the way the Union operates but it does not prejudge what the future CAP will entail. This week's debates at the Agriculture Council proves to what extent essential aspects are controversial and certain choices have been rejected by several member states. The Spanish presidency submitted two draft “conclusions” for Council approval: one is on post-2013 market management measures and the other is on modifications to introduce to the food chain. Several ministers opposed certain aspects and the texts were not approved as Council conclusions but simply those of the presidency. EUROPE 10108 provides a report on these differences and broadly summarised the contents contained in the Presidency conclusions. Member states with misgivings are not the same on both dossiers but the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark are present in both cases.
The two texts cover essential aspects of the CAP of tomorrow: market management, public intervention, the introduction of derogations to competition rules to enable farmers' organisations coordinate between themselves against the food processing industry and big chain stores. In practice, if the Agriculture Council had voted at unanimity, it would have voted in favour of orientations such as: “safety nets” in sectoral crises (protecting both producers and consumers); price formation transparency; opportunities for producers to consult each other when negotiating prices with the processing industry; and a European financial framework that has sufficient resources to respond in serious crises. It is true that it is up to the Commission to develop proposals but if the Council expressed unanimous decisions, how could these decisions be ignored? Our publication, yesterday, indicated that France and Germany had announced a joint document, which will not be simple to establish because certain aspects in the positions diverge; for example, at the Agriculture Council, Germany did not agree to the conclusions covering any further flexibility in competition rules. The experience, however, has taught us that arbitration on Franco-German positions is being carried out at the highest level…
The European Parliament's role will also be as decisive because it has become co-legislator with the Council and will now control the budget for agriculture (which escaped its control last year).
The new CAP is far from being in the bag, it is the subject of a huge negotiation that has only just started.
(FR.)