Brussels, 06/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, is soon to travel to the Canary Isles to discuss possible changes to the POSEI programme (known by its French name of Programmes d'options spécifiques à l'éloignement et l'insularité), which offers aid to agriculture and local production in the extremely remote regions. The trip will take place between 18 and 20 September.
Ciolos told a group of journalists on Thursday 5 September that the Commission was not calling the existence, continuance or budget (we must keep the budget as it is, he in fact stressed) of this POSEI programme into question. “I want to discuss directly with the beneficiaries how we can guarantee a better use of the budget, and we are not calling into question the idea of decentralising the management of this instrument”, the commissioner clarified. Under the most recent reform (2006), the countries of the EU were granted a certain degree of flexibility, as the situation differs greatly from one member state to the next, Ciolos pointed out. “We cannot centralise everything in Brussels”, he said. In order to demonstrate that the best use is being made of the funds and good results are being achieved, he argued that there should be agreement on “clearer objectives”. We need indicators in order to measure the results, he added, otherwise, in a few years' time, instruments of this kind could be “under scrutiny over their efficiency in terms of their use of public money”. The commissioner recommends greater transparency in the use of the funds and better distribution of aid on the basis of the measures.
It is important that the extremely remote regions be helped not only to compensate for the cost of importing basic products from the continent, but also to produce these basic products. We need to strike a balance between support to dominant production and diversification in order to achieve the objective of keeping farmers in farming and ensuring good development of these areas.
In 2010, the financial allocations under the POSEI programme stood at: €268.4 million for Spain, €278.4 million for France and €106.2 million for Portugal.
A 2010 Commission report on the assessment of this programme reached the conclusion that “both the Commission and the member states must continue their efforts to improve the implementation of the regime as much as possible, particularly in order to achieve the objectives of food self-sufficiency and diversification away from traditional export sectors in order to ensure the viability of farming, even in the event of market crisis”. (LC/transl.fl)