Brussels, 12/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting with press on Sunday 11 September on the sidelines of the informal meeting of European agricultural ministers in Wroc³aw (Poland), Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloº championed a “more ambitious” product promotion policy and argued for a new comprehensive economic plan for European agriculture and food.
Product promotion is the topic of the working meeting of European ministers to be held in Poland on Tuesday 13 September, and Cioloº said that the Commission would bring forward a communication on the EU agricultural agri-food product promotion policy at the start of next year, followed by proposals. “The EU needs a promotion policy that is much more ambitious in terms of budget and content, and the management structure has to be reviewed in order to obtain results”, he said.
With the changes of the last 15-20 years, instruments to boost exports are no longer in line with the approach to markets, he added. He suggested that the EU did not have enough tools to deal with the challenges “to our exports, even though the EU remains a major player”. Over the course of the last 10 years, the EU's share of the global agricultural and agri-food has fallen from 21.5% to 17.1%. “There is work to be done. We cannot have ambitions if we don't have the budget. Political choices will have to be made”, he argued.
Future of CAP. The commissioner pointed out that the Commission is in the final phase of drafting legislative proposals on the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP), which will be presented on 12 October (see EUROPE 10449 for the detail of the draft regulation). It will be important, after 12 October, “not to lose sight of the overall goal arrived at through public debate and during discussions on the communication. We are devising a new comprehensive economic plan for European agriculture and for food”, he said. He made it plain that “the CAP is an important factor in European construction and will remain so in the future, especially in the current difficult economic situation. Europe is paying particular attention to food security, the medium- and long-term competitiveness of its agriculture and economic and environmental competitiveness”.
The challenges of food security, management of natural resources and the dynamic of rural areas raise questions which the legislative proposals will have to respond. “When we see that the number of young farmers is continuing to fall, we have to send the clear signal that we want to keep a strong, dynamic agricultural and agri-food sector which takes account of public goods and of segment development and regional economic development”, the commissioner stated. (L.C./transl.rt)