Brussels, 16/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 June, the European Parliament's agriculture and rural development committee adopted its contribution to the debate on the future of the common agricultural policy post-2013 in the form of a report by George Lyon (ALDE, UK) adopted by 41 to 2. The report will be submitted to the EP plenary in July 2010. In order to deal with the raft of new challenges on the horizon in terms of food security and supply, tackling climate change, renewable energy, water resource management and biodiversity, the CAP should remain a joint EU policy in the MEPs' view. It needs to be made fairer, more sustainable and more environmentally-friendly but must not be farmed out to the member states again. The MEPs say the EU's budget should continue to fully finance most direct farm aid and further co-funding should be refused because this could introduce an uneven playing field for the European single market. In order to meet the demands from new EU member states for them to be treated fairly, the MEPs call on the Commission to publish further objective criteria to cut the gap in the size of direct farm payments, arguing that calculations s on the basis of acreage alone are no longer appropriate. (A.B./transl.fl)