On Monday 25 June, the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament announced it had launched a manifesto for a “fair and democratic” Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The political group believes the CAP has been a failure as one European farm has disappeared every three minutes in the last decade alone.
The proposals put forward by the GUE/NGL group come in response to the European Commission’s proposals on the CAP post-2020.
In its manifesto, the group calls for: - relocation of production in order to promote short food supply chains; - aid oriented more towards small family farms; - an annual glyphosate exit plan; - a production model geared to ecological transition (crop rotation, no GMOs); - fair prices for farmers; - fairer distribution of direct payments by increasing modulation and imposing caps; - a doubling of the young farmers payment; - public insurance to cover climate and health risks; - improved market transparency; - phasing-out of export subsidies to avoid further market distortion in developing countries; - prohibition of all forms of seed patenting; - and a halt in negotiations on the conclusion of an EU/Mercosur free trade agreement. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)