On Friday 10 February, Copa and Cogeca, the farming and agri-cooperative organisations in the EU, highlighted that the greening of direct aid will be a sensitive issue in the next reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (see EUROPE 11714).
Copa President Martin Merrild told the press on Friday that the greening of aid (which seeks to recompense action to maintain and protect the environment) had not been working satisfactorily and that greater responsibility had to be given to farmers, as the system is too bureaucratic. Copa Vice-President Henri Brichart said that what was important was to understand what is meant by greening. “Right now, what we see is a pile of rules that just keeps growing”, he said.
Copa and Cogeca argue for the CAP to continue, in future, to be well funded and for the present system of direct payments to be maintained. The organisations also call for more tools to manage risk and market crises. They welcomed the statement by European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan that the future CAP had to be adequately funded.
Brexit. Merrild acknowledged that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU would have a considerable impact on the EU budget situation and on the financing of the CAP. If the UK were to completely leave the single market, new trade agreements would have to be negotiated with it, “which is complicated and takes time”, he noted. He felt, however, that British people would still need food on their plates and thus would still need to trade with the remaining EU countries. “Even if the United Kingdom becomes more open to products on the global market, I believe that EU farmers will remain competitive on the British market”, he argued – hence the need, in his view, for a “progressive” CAP. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)