In response to the proposals on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from the European People’s Party (EPP), which suggests delaying the next reform until 2025, ten MEPs from the S&D Group argue, on the contrary, that the policy has to be reviewed as a matter of urgency with the emphasis on sustainability and no longer sacrificing agriculture on the “altar of free trade”.
“European agriculture needs a daring and innovative approach! What we need is a revolution in our agricultural policy and we need it right now, not the status quo until 2015”, argue ten MEPs on the agriculture committee (though committee deputy chair Paolo De Castro is not among their number) in an opinion piece published on 14 September in response to the position on reform of the CAP adopted by the EPP on 4 September (see EUROPE 11858 and 11859).
“Neither farmers nor environmental organisations nor consumers and tax-payers are satisfied with the current CAP”, they write. So, rather than doing no more than improving the functioning of existing tools, the new CAP should, in view of the current climate and environmental situation, deliver rapid change of the agricultural development model. Their proposal particularly stresses environmental issues.
Greening and free trade. The ten MEPs say that the new CAP should promote agricultural practices which store more carbon in the soil, better manage and protect water resources, cut emissions of nitrous oxide and develop practices that encourage alternative farming methods that make good use of grass and cut methane emissions. They add: “Production must be diversified and agricultural practice that reduces the use of chemicals encouraged. More generally, the new CAP must help farmers in the transition towards a sustainable development and economically viable model”. The MEPs stress that it is crucial that the EU puts in place a real strategic sovereignty and food security plan and that it stops sacrificing agriculture on “the altar of free-trade”.
The ten signatories of the piece are: Eric Andrieu (France), Clara Aguilera Garcia (Spain), Nicola Caputo (Italy), Vasilica-Viorica Dăncilă (Romania), Jean-Paul Denanot (France), Karin Kadenbach (Austria), Momchil Nekov (Bulgaria), Maria Noichl (Germany), Tibor Szanyi (Hungary), Marc Tarabella (Belgium).
At the end of November, the European Commission will set out the main features of its proposal on the new CAP followed, in 2018, by legislative proposals. The ten MEPs already fear that the Commission proposal will amount to no more than “improving the functioning of existing tools”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)