Luxembourg, 13/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - EU agriculture ministers met in Luxembourg on Monday 13 October to discuss the mid-term review of the EUROPE 2020 strategy ahead of December's European Council. Several countries were of the view that, before reforming the strategy, it should be properly implemented, while others argued that countries should have greater freedom in implementing it.
The EUROPE 2020 strategy sets out five major objectives against which progress made in implementation must be measured: employment, research and development, climate and energy, education, and social inclusion and poverty reduction. While the EU is coming close to, or is on the point of reaching, the goals set in education and climate and energy, this is not the case for employment, research and development and poverty reduction. The Italian Presidency of the Council says these latter three goals are of particular interest to agriculture.
During the debate in the Agriculture Council, some countries (Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, et al.) expressed the view that the EU 2020 strategy did not leave countries enough latitude to achieve the objectives.
Several countries, like the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Spain, stressed the need to simplify agricultural legislation and reduce red tape. Some of these countries highlighted the contribution of research to the strategy.
France argued that, rather than consider any revision, eyes should still be on achievement of the goals set, especially as the impact of the new reform of the CAP has yet to be felt. Germany underlined the importance of the second pillar of the CAP (rural development) in achieving the objectives of the EU 2020 strategy. Germany and Sweden also highlighted the imperatives in tackling climate change. Several countries and the Italian Presidency emphasised the need for instruments to help young farmers set up.
Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos pointed out that: - rural areas represent 70% of the landmass of Europe and contain 300 million European citizens, more than half the population; - agriculture and the agri-food sector sustain 46 million jobs in the EU (largest sector in terms of trade balance, 6% of GDP). “Without a strong, dynamic agriculture and agri-food sector, Europe would not be able to achieve its EUROPE 2020 strategy goals in most of its territory” (our translation). Curiously, agriculture does not feature in the EU 2020 strategy. Ciolos said that support for research had been improved, with a budget of €3.85 billion for agri-food research. He concluded by saying that the resistance of European agricultural sectors to crises had to be toughened. (LC)