Brussels, 01/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on Monday 31 January, COPA-COGECA highlighted the massive role that the EU agriculture sector plays in the economy, “employing almost 30 million people and maintaining growth in the rural areas in the EU”.
Speaking at the meeting, COPA President Padraig Walshe underlined the importance of “maintaining jobs in rural agricultural societies”. With world food demand projected to double by 2050, “the economic role of farmers in providing food and services for 500 million consumers” has to be strengthened, Walshe argued. COPA will only look at the “greening” of some of the aid under the common agricultural policy (CAP), as proposed by the Commission, on one condition: that the measures “do not threaten EU farmers' competitive position or reduce our productive capacity”.
The COPA president also repeated his opposition to the Commission's recent initiative seeking to further liberalise trade with the Mercosur bloc and with Morocco.
COGECA President Paolo Bruni insisted that, with the challenges ahead, such as extreme market volatility, “EU farmers' position in the food chain must be strengthened as they currently receive a fraction of the retail price. This could be achieved by adjusting EU competition rules”.
CEJA (European Council of Young Farmers) President Joris Baecke told Barroso that 34% of farmers are over 65 years old, equivalent to 4.5 million farmers who will retire by 2020. European agriculture can deliver on the five objectives of the EU2020 strategy, Baeke argued, “provided that the young generation of agri-entrepeneurs are given a strong installation policy”. He concluded by saying that European policies should aim to tackle generational decline. (L.C./transl.rt)