Brussels, 12/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 10 May, the European Parliament's agriculture and rural development committee, Dacian Cioloº, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, and Elena Espinosa, the Spanish minister for the environment and rural and marine affairs, debated the impact of EU standards on competitiveness in the European primary and agro-food sectors. Over recent years, producers have had to deal with a fall in their competitiveness. Espinosa explained that “providing a quality product at a reasonable price is a mission accomplished but we also have to provide a decent standard of living for the people who work throughout the food chain”.
Dacian Cioloº explained that farmers' standards had to respect increasing demands from the EU and consumers in both the mode of production and the product itself. The commissioner insisted that “differentiated quality is our common agriculture's number one advantage”. The speakers explained that they needed to protect this high level of standards, while simplifying and reducing bureaucracy, in an effort to facilitate the work of farmers.
Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, Spain) denounced the fact that “competitiveness has fallen because of standards”. The MEP added that “agriculture represents a public service for which farmers should be appropriately remunerated. We have to prove that we support this added value, in order to tackle the fall in productivity”. This determination is shared by the MEP's colleague in the EPP, Maria Esther Herranz García, who stated that the “objectives of the CAP are not underpinned by the resources to attain them. Operators should be compensated when they are subject to additional standards”. This necessity was also taken up by the Spanish minister who said that “the European model must be able to demonstrate its competitiveness. We must try and adapt support for agriculture as from 2013, so we can assess how standards are respected”.
During the discussion, two obstacles, in particular, were the subject of debate: unfair competition from imported products, which are subject to less strict standards; and the lack of information available to consumers about the quality of products proposed to them.
The different speakers were critical of the inequality between standards imposed on European production and those applied to imported products. Herranz García criticised the use of pesticides in crops imported into Europe, when these very same pesticides are banned in Europe. This inequality is provoking increasingly unfair competition, against which the Commission, member states and European Parliament intend to fight: all imported or European products must respect the same standards. José Maria Espuny from the European Economic and Social Committee declared: “Traceability is perfect in European countries but it begins at the borders for imported products. We are much less strict with regard to these products. These imports need to be controlled, in order to guarantee consumer safety, the protection of their health and animal welfare. Espinosa explained that “the products entering our market must respond to the equivalent requirements. We have a differentiated model that we can defend throughout the whole world. We need to redouble our efforts so that it is possible to better recognise our production and develop a reciprocal level of requirements that is fair and balanced. We need to strengthen our access to a strategic market”. Fair competition will also be achieved by way of toughening up the standards of third countries. Maria Angela Perito from the Istituto nazionale di economia agraria (INEA) proposed that “third countries be given support and help so that they move towards the European model and that in medium and long-term multilateral agreements, there is an increasing shift towards the European philosophy regarding food safety”.
In addition to fairer competition, European competitiveness requires the provision of better information for European consumers with regard to the Union's high quality requirements. The commissioner therefore wants to help producers improve communication with regard to the added value of their products. “Agriculture and its diversity needs to be protected in the Union and we have to be clear in showing taxpayers that this kind of agriculture is taking into account their expectations”. The European Union is currently working on a series of initiatives in this area, aimed at improving information, with, for example, simple and understandable labelling and reliable information about whether a product respects European principles or not.
Espinosa highlighted the need for consumer awareness and emphasised that “consumers are used to not having to run any risks and yet they are unable to recognise that the effort to achieve this has been made by the farmers, breeders, professionals in the fishing industry and the distributors. We have to explain to the consumer that standards have a price. The specific production mode needs to be remunerated, even if this has an impact on consumers”. (C-C.G./transl.fl)