The European Parliament, in Strasbourg on Wednesday 14 December called for crisis prevention and management tools for the agricultural sector. Parliament’s request will inform the discussion on the post-2020 common agricultural policy (CAP) (see EUROPE 11663).
In adopting the report by Angélique Delahaye (EPP, France) on addressing price volatility on agricultural markets, MEPs take the view that the CAP’s traditional crisis management tools (public intervention and private storage) “are not sufficiently effective in a globalised economy”. They call on the Commission to develop combinable and/or complementary public- and private-sector tools, together with a tailored, binding early warning mechanism “in order to ensure the proper functioning of markets and counteract market crises”.
Parliament look upon countercyclical measures as crisis prevention and management tools, in combination with the risk management tools, “through which the EU can intervene on agriculture markets in cases of “force majeure” crisis so as to avoid substantial price cuts”. It calls on the Commission to conduct a study on how to develop mechanisms to prevent and combat crises due to price volatility using countercyclical aids and to provide for greater flexibility in the annual budgets, within the bounds of the multiannual financial envelope, in order to take account of the countercyclical aids. Parliament also calls for a crisis reserve to be put in place outside the EU budget and for it to serve as source of funding for crisis management tools.
Parliament calls on the Commission to facilitate the introduction of contractual systems by adjusting EU competition policy to the specific needs of the agricultural sector. CAP objectives must continue to prevail over competition rules, according to an amendment tabled by the rapporteur which was adopted with the notable support of the S&D Group. Parliament once again calls on the Commission to set up an EU legislative framework “forbidding unfair trading practices in the food supply chain that can create price volatility on agricultural markets”.
“My goal is to propose a range of tools that can be used to tackle price volatility and that can be built into the next CAP”, said Delahaye. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)