Brussels, 11/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 11 May at a seminar on "The role of OECD in the agricultural policy reform agenda", organised by the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Warsaw and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development, the commissioner for agriculture, Dacian Cioloº, declared that after 2013, it will be necessary to better adapt aid to the situation on the ground and improve the targeting of this aid. He stated that this must “support farmers' incomes, and create the conditions for viable farms, while providing a public service” (maintaining landscapes, protecting biodiversity, animal welfare, regional planning and environmental protection).
Cioloº also stated that “we can no longer talk about a single European model in agriculture … we no longer have a single kind of agriculture in the European Union but rather, different kinds of agriculture and we have to make this diversity flourish”. The commissioner for agriculture explains that protecting this diversity does not mean “reactivating national policies to the detriment of Community policy … the renationalisation of the CAP is unacceptable. This would destabilise the only genuinely integrated European policy and harm the efforts made to achieve the single market”. Cioloº asserted that he supported “a common European agricultural policy that was strong and sustainable”.
The commissioner called for the creation of “new market regulation instruments, to respond rapidly and flexibly to price fluctuations”.
He pointed out that the EU is the biggest importer and exporter of foodstuffs and that “European agricultural production standards are the highest in the world … our ambition is to create sustainable agricultural bases that respond, above all, to European citizens' expectations. This is the main direction of future reform”, he explained. Without a policy that allows agricultural activity to be “harmoniously” maintained throughout European territory, “the environmental and social costs will be enormous”, concluded the commissioner. (L.C./transl.fl)