Brussels, 29/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The senior adviser on sustainable development to the president of the European Commission calls in strategic notes for a profound review of the EU's agriculture policy (the common agricultural policy or CAP) in order to combat the concentration and overspecialisation of farms, with a view to creating more jobs and better preserving natural resources.
Karl Falkenberg, Senior Adviser to Jean-Claude Juncker, has drawn up strategic notes entitled “Sustainability Now!” published by the European Commission's European Political Strategy Centre, which points out that the EU mainly experts processed food and has become a large importer of basic food products, particularly from developing countries, a trend which does not encourage sustainable agricultural practices.
The notes describe the situation for pork: “For April 2016, pork was the agri-food product that witnessed the highest increase in monthly export values. While this is good news in terms of trade balance, it should be seen in the broader context of pig-meat production in the EU: high concentration of livestock in big specialised farms, producing pressure on climate, soil and water because of gas emissions, high quantities of effluents/manure, and minimal employment effects”.
Falkenberg, a former director general at the European Commission's DG Environment, says that too much CAP funding still goes to big, intensive farms, which increase social inequality, environmental issues, monocultures and rural desertification. Despite recent reforms, the long-term impact of the CAP on rural employment, farm income and major environmental indicators (soil quality and biodiversity) remains problematic, explain the notes.
Review of the CFP and health-check. Falkenberg points out, however, that agriculture can provide important job creation possibilities if it is organised in a less industrial manner. A European policy that better supports the agricultural labour force could not only help halt the rural exodus, but also create jobs to keep the traditional landscape, reduce water and soil quality problems and help restore biodiversity on farmland. He therefore wants the upcoming review of the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) to be an opportunity to examine whether rural development programmes and the greening of CAP aid are actually achieving the desired outcomes.
In the medium-term, Juncker's senior adviser wants a fitness check of the CAP to be done; “reverse the trend to overspecialisation on single farm activity; support integrated farming as a means to secure farm income in the face of world price fluctuation; privilege quality over quantity and seek to sustainably use renewable resources on land and at sea”. The notes finally recommend better awareness of sustainable consumption and rules taking account of conditions in farming to ensure more strategic use of member states' public procurement rules. Many other themes are also addressed in the notes, such as expanding organic farming and precision farming, pollination by insects and the role of international trade.
CAP 2020 to be discussed in September against Brexit backdrop. European Commissioner Phil Hogan is not expected to attend the meeting of EU farm ministers on the post-2020 CAP and the impact of Brexit, a meeting convened by French farm minister Stéphane Le Foll in Chambord on 1 and 2 September (see EUROPE 11600). The debates will be co-chaired by German federal minister Christian Schmidt. The impact of the British referendum decision to leave the EU will be on the agenda of a seminar at the end of August for members of the Commission in preparation for the annual State of the Union speech that Jean-Claude Juncker will deliver to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 14 September. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)