At the EU agricultural outlook conference in Brussels on Tuesday 6 December, Jean-Claude Juncker confirmed that the European Commission would adopt a communication before the end of 2017 on the future of the common agricultural policy (CAP). The principles of this current CAP should be maintained even though adjustments will be necessary, he stated.
Juncker said that European agriculture had “become environmentally friendly and its quality standards are among the most demanding in the world”. He extolled the merits of a policy which “protects our 22 million farmers and the 44 million jobs that directly or indirectly depend on agriculture”. “Forty-four million: that is double the number of people employed in the EU in the sectors of tomorrow – automotive and aviation – combined. From a jobs point of view, then, agriculture is also a sector of tomorrow”, he reasoned. In addition, the CAP maintains a European way of life and fully assumes its solidarity responsibilities, for example, in the crisis affecting the milk, pig meat and fruit and vegetables sectors.
A CAP to be adjusted and simplified. Juncker argued that the guiding principles of the CAP “must be maintained”. It must be possible, of course, to adjust and supplement the CAP where weaknesses are identified, he said. He referred to the position of farmers on the food supply chain and repeated that he could not accept that the price of milk could be lower than that of water (see EUROPE 11624). The Commission is considering the recommendations of the agricultural markets working party “and I have asked my good friend Phil Hogan to see what lessons can be drawn from them for the agriculture sector which we need to continue to support”, he said.
The CAP is a fundamental, vital European policy but, according to the Commission president, it has to be simplified in order to reduce red tape for farmers and modernised “to meet the challenges of the 21st century”, and it must address the EU’s sustainable development targets. “Simplification and modernisation are, therefore, the watchwords and the main goal of the communication on the future of the CAP”, he stated. A public consultation will be opened at the start of next year to inform the debate on the future direction of this “immensely important strategic” policy should take, he said. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)