Brussels, 06/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - As the talks on the EU's budget for 2014-2020 and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy enter the crucial stage, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik calls for common sense to ensure that a greener CAP is not sacrificed on the altar of short-term interests. At the sixth forum on the future of farming organised by the European Landowner Association (ELO) with the aid of Syngenta, the Commissioner spoke in Brussels on Tuesday 5 March in a debate on boosting sustainability and efficient use of resources.
The Commissioner warned that the European Summit had given an overview for the reform process but the devil is in the detail. He defended the pledge to use 30% of the CAP direct farm payments for the environment, warning that this praiseworthy move would mean nothing if the cash were not used to the benefit of biodiversity, water, the earth and the climate.
Water and pesticides are always ignored. The European Summit had not said anything about including the water directive and the pesticide directive in the move to make farming greener, and he regretted that the member states and the European Parliament's Agriculture and Rural Development Committee were singing from a different song sheet. He said it would be daft if as progress is being made in greening direct farm payments, the burden of cleaning up polluted areas were to be placed on taxpayers. He said people must be very cautious because what was desired was to use tight but fair environmental eligibility criteria for farm aid to prevent pollution. He said that sending a signal that farm policy is incapable of change would run the risk of there being more calls on environmental legislation and funding for the environment outside the CAP.
While he understands the temptation in some member states to give greater farm aid, the Commissioner said that a lot of work was needed to update farms, protect the environment and improve country life, all of which costs money, but which generally has a positive fallout for jobs, the environment and efficient use of limited resources. Potocnik said the member states must resist the short-term carrot and got for longer-term gains, stressing the potential of the Natura 2000 network of protected habitats as long as it operates well and is properly financed.
A new report on land as a resource. Farming does not escape the increasing pressure on resources due to growing numbers of human beings, damaged ecosystems, deterioration of soil and the using up of water supplies, and in 2014 the European Commission will publish a report on land as a resource, said Potocnik. Cutting down on food waste is particularly important and an area that the Commission is working on is a way of ensuring everyone has enough to eat and food does not get wasted.
Study says suspending use of neo-nicotinoid pesticides would lead to financial loss. At the forum, the Humboldt Scientific Study HFFA 1/2013 was published on the social and economic impact of suspending use of neo-nicotinoid insecticides in Europe - recognised as the most deadly for honey bees. Financed by industry players Syngenta, Bayer, ECP, ESA and COPA-COGECA, the study says that a ban on neo-nicotinoids would lead to losses of up to 40% and financial losses of €17 billion over five years.
The NGO PAN Europe says the research is unrealistic. It says it is based on an erroneous basis and PAN Europe accuses the pesticides industry of manipulating the facts and figures to scare off European decision-makers by making them believe that the industry is dealing with the challenges to be faced by farming in the future. Martin Dermine of PAN Europe asks, what is a loss of €3.4 billion a year compared with the €15 billion a year provided each year in Europe alone by the pollination of plants by insects?
He points out that this is not even counting the fact that many other health and environmental costs have to be taken into account in the manufacture of pesticides. The European Commission is planning to suspend use of three pesticides/insecticides for two years (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and clothianidin) (see EUROPE 10777). (AN/transl.fl)