Brussels, 22/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Ten regions of Europe, representing almost 10% of European agricultural production, have given qualified support to the common agricultural policy (CAP), the proposals for the review of which were presented on 12 October. Regions from Germany, Austria, France, Spain and Poland handed their recommendations to a European institutional trio comprising European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, MEP Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos (S&D, Portugal) and Andrzej Babuchowski, adviser in agriculture to the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Though the ten regions acknowledged the Commission's generally positive work on the review of the CAP, they want more information and improvements on a number of points. They call for upstream preventive market stabilisation, not just the reactive instruments currently contained in the legislative proposals. Quality products have also to be better supported - as has agriculture that is still human in scale. While supportive of the “greening” of agricultural aid, the regions call for simplification of the rules.
Responding to the comments of the ten regions, Ciolos acknowledged that the CAP had to take account of the diversity of agriculture. The policy had to be multi-faceted, tailored to suit each region and each type of production. Capoulas Santos, who is also the European Parliament rapporteur on the direct payments and European agricultural fund for rural development regulations, welcomed the constructive proposals put by the group of regions: “They will help me draft my report, which will be submitted to the European Parliament agriculture committee in the coming weeks”. Jean-Yves Le Drian, President of the Brittany Regional Council (France), whose initiative the move was, welcomed the establishment of direct dialogue with the institutions. “Our regions are very different but they have shown themselves capable of finding agreement. The contribution of the regions, open to those who share these values, will become a reference for putting in place dialogue with those who will jointly determine the shape of the CAP in the coming months”, he said. (MD/transl.rt)