Brussels, 21/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - During a meeting with the press, COPA President Noël Devisch deplored the developments that have caused farming and farmers to be caught between two lines of fire. "We now have public opinion against us", he noted, speaking of the anxiety caused by the successive dioxin and BSE crises which caused "a wave of panic", showing just how essential objectivity, scientific know-how and better consumer information are. "We have the impression we have gone too far in the industrialisation of agriculture", he said, stressing that even Chancellor Schröder recently spoke of "putting an end to industrial production". "For me this is a paradox", added Mr Devisch, who recalled the large number of small and medium-sized farms in the EU compared to the situation in the United States.
The COPA president expressed the hope that there would be an "overall vision of farming in the next century", allowing the elimination of a certain number of contradictions, that snare producers in a tug of war between quality requirements and increasingly strict standards, on one hand, and policies that call for gains in productivity and low prices, on the other. Mr Devisch hoped there would be greater consistency in the implementation of measures linked to multifunctionality. He hoped reforms would not be multiplied in order to take account, successively, of the internal EU imperatives, new WTO commitments and the timetable for enlargement. He also insisted on the need to avoid all re-nationalisation of agricultural policy.
Speaking of the decisions taken over recent weeks to fight against BSE, Mr Devisch regretted that nothing had been planned for the financing at Community level of measures that will cost a great deal. He said he hoped a voluntarist policy for the production of protein crops in Europe would be set in place. He recalled that there is no international constraint preventing the EU from developing its plant protein production and that the limits fixed by the Blair House Agreement for oilseeds will themselves fall when, as foreseen by the reform of Agenda 2000, the level of aid has been brought into line with that for cereals. He considered it paradoxical that the EU should be dependent on imports of protein crops (up to 75% for oilseeds), while 4 million hectares in Europe are left fallow.
EU enlargement is another source of concern for the agricultural professional organisations and Mr Devisch did not fail to recall that the number of farmers would more than double in the enlarged Europe. Among other problems to be overcome, he cited the quality and the safety of products as well as epizootics. "To friends (and farmers of candidate countries are "living in a dream", noted Mr Devisch), we should tell the truth: the period of transition will be very long and very difficult", he affirmed, recalling that, for Spain, it took ten years. Mr Devisch also urged for strengthened pre-accession structural aid, which, he believes, is far too low.