Three weeks before the European elections and three days before an informal European summit in Sibiu, Romania, on the future of the EU, EU agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) launched their campaign on Monday 6 May in Brussels, to highlight the achievements of the sector and put forward proposals for the new political cycle of the Union 2019-2024.
Under the banner "Together, let us cultivate the future of Europe", the EU's agricultural organisations and cooperatives, which encourage people in rural areas to vote in the European elections, advocate a “solid” Union, despite the prospect of Brexit, without reducing the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2020, and also stress the importance of generation renewal.
No to agri-bashing. Pekka Pesonen, Copa-Cogeca's Secretary General, did not hide his concern from the press about the rise of Euroscepticism and populism in Europe. “These marginal phenomena are becoming more and more important” Pesonen said. He also regretted the tendency in Member States to denigrate agriculture, which he claims influences young people's perception of the agricultural sector. Copa-Cogeca therefore has a strong interest in encouraging the EU institutions to communicate positively on the work done by EU farmers.
Mr Pesonen stressed that in order to have a well-functioning CAP, it would be necessary to know the amount of its financial envelope. “We need to have the money before we determine policies”, he said. He therefore hopes for an agreement under the Finnish Presidency (July-December 2019) on the next EU Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027.
With its campaign #WeFarm4EU (website, visual documents, social networks), Copa-Cogeca also emphasises research and knowledge sharing, and asks, in particular, for the possibility for breeders to have “access to modern plant breeding methods, such as mutagenesis”. It also advocates smart/precision agriculture that allows all farmers and cooperatives to be connected.
In the field of plant health, Copa-Cogeca stresses the need to offer “alternatives”, because the current system of authorisation and control of the use of plant protection products “does not guarantee the competitiveness of European agriculture”.
Balanced trade agreements. Trade agreements negotiated with third countries should be balanced, insists Copa-Cogeca, which considers the European side's offer of market access to Mercosur to be “too ambitious” in this respect.
On the negotiations with the United States, Copa-Cogeca was not initially opposed to the inclusion of agriculture in the negotiations, provided that all subjects were discussed. But given the current US position, Copa-Cogeca is very satisfied with the exclusion of agriculture from talks with the United States.
Climate. Farmers' organisations are calling for “coherence” in climate change policies and for “recognition of the efforts” made by their sector to meet sustainable development objectives. They also demand “sufficient flexibility” so that producers “can be efficient in the use of natural resources while guaranteeing food security”.
Pekka Pesonen stressed that farmers must “first adapt to climate change and then help to mitigate it”. The agricultural sector regulates emissions and absorbs them from the atmosphere in a natural way.
Copa-Cogeca also calls for the implementation of “concrete measures” for the bioeconomy in the national strategic plans of the next CAP.
Risk management. In its 'manifesto', Copa-Cogeca, which is rather satisfied with the outcome of the vote in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee on the post-2020 CAP proposals, calls for a ‘good range of tools’ for investment and risk management so that farmers can compete with other economic sectors.
It is also necessary to encourage the creation of producer organisations and the development of agricultural cooperatives and "fully implement the principle that the CAP takes precedence over the objectives of competition", as recognised by the EU Court of Justice.
In 2017, the total production of the European agricultural sector amounted to around 430 billion euros.
Generational renewal. Today, only 11% of European farmers are under the age of 40. “Promoting generational renewal is the best way to preserve the model of family farming, the foundation of European agriculture”, says the Copa-Cogeca manifesto. To encourage young people to enter the agricultural sector, "we must ensure that young farmers have access to land and to credit". All measures proposed under the future CAP, such as pension schemes, must directly benefit young farmers.
It is also essential, in the eyes of EU agricultural organisations and cooperatives, to improve agricultural income, which today represents only 46.5% of the average income of other economic sectors. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)