Brussels, 06/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - At an agriculture conference in Oxford, United Kingdom, a country where the governing politicians are calling for the phasing out of agricultural subsidies to farmers, Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloº said that, in his view, common agricultural policy (CAP) direct payments “should certainly be maintained” in the future. He also argued for the retention of a “strong budget” for the CAP after 2013.
“Yes, direct payments can deliver more in terms of public goods than they do today. But their income supporting function is a must”, Cioloº said on Thursday 6 January. He conceded that steps had to be taken to make the system more understandable and more credible to the taxpayer, with the same rules applicable everywhere.
The commissioner noted that well over 90% of European agricultural payments are now decoupled from production and that, in 2010, export subsidies were well below 1% of the CAP budget. It is the markets which are now the key driver in production decisions, he said, not European subsidies. Thanks to successive reforms, “there has been a fundamental shift in the CAP”, he said, adding that that had to be the starting point for building the future. “Once more, we are engaged in a fundamental reform process of the common agricultural policy.” The Commission communication on the reform, published on 18 November 2010, will be discussed by European ministers on 24 January.
As far as what the reform wanted to achieve was concerned, food production is the “number one objective” of agriculture and for farmers, Cioloº said. It would, however, be “simplistic” to limit the CAP to just that, he added. “The CAP also deals with helping farmers preserve our natural resources and maintain a countryside people want to live in.”
The commissioner noted that the Commission is working, too, to improve the CAP's overall environmental performance by providing incentives for farmers to apply production methods that preserve natural resources. (L.C./transl.rt)