Brussels, 23/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 15 April, COPA-COGECA published its manifesto ahead of the forthcoming European Parliament elections to be held in May of this year, in which it calls for fair and balanced trade agreements and advocates cautiousness over the climate and energy package.
In this manifesto, which lays down the priorities for European agriculture in the years to come, the agricultural organisations of the EU call on the MEPs to defend: - a strong European agriculture sector for growth and employment, the economy and society; - international trade agreements which respect Europe's high production standards; - a better income for farmers;- the fight against climate change and diversification of energy supply; - the creation of new commercial opportunities in rural areas; and making the common agriculture policy of the EU a success.
Every year, Europe's exports of agricultural produce are worth €114 billion. Two thirds of this are processed agricultural products. COPA-COGECA therefore calls on the MEPs to ensure that trade agreements are “fair and balanced” and recognise the EU's high production standards. As regards the upcoming bilateral trade negotiations between the EU and the United States, the organisations believe that there is growth potential on both sides of the Atlantic. “We have observed positive market trends, particularly for wine, cheese and processed meat”, COPA explains. The organisation estimates that three quarters of the benefits of the free-trade agreement with the United States would come from lifting non-tariff barriers to trade. COPA-COGECA would also like to see European production standards being respected in the framework of all bilateral negotiations. The use of hormones and other growth accelerators in meat production, and the use of chlorine in chicken production, are not authorised under EU law. “It is therefore vital that imports to the EU respect these standards”. Furthermore, there is a need for the recognition of the European system of geographical indications (GI), which protect quality European products, such as wine, from imitations. “Legal security must be established at global level”. The most sensitive European sector is the meat sector, and it has been categorised as such in the initial offer of the European Commission to the United States in terms of market access. Nonetheless, in light of the various bilateral negotiations, the classification of sensitive products is no longer sufficient to take account of the specific nature of the sectors. “We therefore call on the MEPs to follow closely the dossier on the management of tariff quotas, in order to avoid problems on the European markets. The offer made by the United States on market access needs to be significantly improved”, the agricultural organisations explain.
In order to boost the position of farmers within the food chain, COPA-COGECA urges the MEPs to encourage the development of agricultural cooperatives. This will guarantee a better division of added value for the entire length of the food chain.
COPA-COGECA encourages the MEPs to show prudence regarding the European Commission's proposal on the climate and energy package, particularly as regards the option to increase the objective for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 40%. This will lead to a heavier burden on the non-EU emission trading sector, which includes agriculture. COPA-COGECA firmly believes that the existing framework for the non-emission trading sector remains an appropriate tool to guarantee the agriculture sector's contribution to the commitments to reduce emissions other than CO2. It stresses that the Commission's proposals on the climate and energy policies up to 2030 “lack ambition” in terms of defining targets for renewable energies. COPA would like to see a specific sub-objective for renewable energies used in transport of more than 10%, taking account of the development of renewable electricity and electric vehicles. In the absence of binding national targets for renewable energy, sub-objectives for renewable energy used in transport and ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transport, “the energy used will come mostly from fossil fuels rather than renewable sources, which will make it harder to meet the emissions reduction targets”, argues COPA-COGECA. This means that the removal of support to first-generation sustainable bio-fuels will have extremely negative fallout for the commercial development of advanced bio-fuels. “European bio-fuels should not be penalised by greenhouse gas emissions due to indirect land-use changes, as the real impact is still impossible to calculate due to the lack of scientific evidence”. COPA-COGECA urges the MEPs to make sure that this problem is dealt with (our translation throughout). (LC)