The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, presented, at the EU ‘Agriculture’ Council on Tuesday 26 March, various measures to improve the income of EU farmers, following on from the work already well underway on simplifying the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (see EUROPE 13379/2).
EU agriculture ministers have welcomed the list of proposals presented by the European Commission on 15 March to strengthen the role of farmers in the agri-food supply chain (see EUROPE 13372/3).
At the press conference, David Clarinval, the Belgian Minister for Agriculture and whose country holds the current Presidency of the EU Council, pointed out that “the Commission is proposing a European price observatory, for greater transparency, as well as measures linked to the Unfair Trading Practices Directive, to improve the position of farmers in the food chain vis-à-vis the major players in the food industry”.
The Commission plans to propose an amendment to the regulation on the common market organisation and a report evaluating the directive on combating unfair commercial practices. “We will examine the possibility of including in the directive the principle that it is forbidden to pay less than the production costs and that farmers must always benefit from a fair margin when selling their produce”, Janusz Wojciechowski explained at the press conference following the EU Council. He added that the discussions do not concern the introduction of minimum prices to be paid to farmers.
Among the immediate measures that could be implemented in the coming weeks are the creation of an observatory of production costs, margins and trade practices and the adoption of a report on the implementation of the Unfair Trading Practices Directive. As far as the targeted changes to the CMO regulation are concerned, the aim is to reduce transaction costs and correct imbalances in the value chain.
The Commission will suggest strengthening Community provisions on contracts involving farmers and CAP support for cooperation between farmers and with other players in the supply chain. It also wants to give greater credibility and visibility to voluntary fair trade and short supply chain systems (minimum standards and conditions for extending sustainability agreements to include objective criteria for the social dimension of sustainable food systems).
Finally, the Commission will propose a new EU regulation on the cross-border enforcement of unfair trade practices, to complement the existing directive. Under this proposal, the powers of national enforcement authorities could be strengthened and their cooperation improved to facilitate more effective cross-border enforcement, exchanges of information and the collection of penalties. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)