Brussels, 10/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The proposals set out by European Commission on 7 September to help farmers through the crisis “deliver no structural response to the difficulties being faced by European farming” (our translation throughout), says Momagri in a press release on Thursday 10 September.
The think tank is of the view that the measures proposed are merely a catalogue of “limited measures with no strategic content showing just how ill-adapted the new common agricultural policy is to the problems that have to be resolved” (see EUROPE 11383). In summary, Momagri considers that the reason farmers find themselves in such difficult straits is that there are no management instruments to counter the impact of price volatility on the sector.
In the face of this volatility and the trend of dramatically falling prices, the responses offered are derisory, Momagri says. It fails to understand why the European Commission continues to stick with its position that “the free-trade agreements currently under negotiation will solve some of the problems of disposal of supply without the merest negative effect on European farmers”. It says there has been no impact study weighing up the positive and negative effects of free-trade agreements, in particular that with the United States. It notes that the EU's North American, South American and Asian counterparts are taking market shares, “very often thanks to agricultural policies which shield them from excessive price falls”.
Momagri advocates in-depth reform of the CAP in order to: - guarantee more stable and higher income for farmers, which would require “counter-cyclical support measures in case of excessive falls in the markets”; - address the European Union's strategic issues in terms of quality produce and food security; - improve the competitiveness of European agricultural production and job-creating agrifood industries.
At the start of this year, Momagri published a White Paper (A New Strategic Course for the CAP) which proposes redirecting direct aid according to a stabilising counter-cyclical rationale, at a cost comparable to that of the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework (see EUROPE 11232 and 11233).
Momagri suggests that the European Parliament should take the leadership role on how to approach the mid-term review (2016-2017) of the multiannual financial framework “to persuade the European Commission to undertake genuine reform of the CAP”. (Lionel Changeur)