Italian agriculture minister Maurizio Martina sent a document to EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan on 6 April outlining the country’s priorities ahead of upcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Drawn up in collaboration with Italy’s regions and farm organisations, the document stresses the need to expand regulations, invest in innovation, protect the income of farmers and food processors and ensure the continuation of careers in the agri-food chain.
To achieve these goals, Italy is proposing to make the regulation on the COM (common organisation of the markets) a veritable third pillar of the CAP by extending it to other sectors such as dairy, meat and cereals. Maurizio Martina is also asking for new risk management instruments to be set up for agriculture and a reduction in red tape for rural development programmes.
New financial instrument. Moreover, eight of Italy’s regions (Piedmont, Tuscany, Umbria, Campania, Puglia, Veneto, Friuli-Veneto and Calabria) signed a framework agreement on 8 April with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the Italian National Agricultural Fund (ISMEA) to set up the Agriculture Italian Guarantee Multiregional Platform (AIGMP) to facilitate access to finance and investing in small and medium sized enterprises in the production, processing and distribution of agricultural products. It is funded by the EAFRD and national contributions (more than €68 million), the EIF (€165 million), the EIB (€150 million) and Cassa Depositi Prestiti SpA (€150 million). In addition, ISMEA has the option to contribute around €20 million. Other Italian regions are updating their rural development programmes and are expected to join the initiative at a later date. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)