Brussels, 05/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Farmers Coordination (EFC) presented its proposals on Friday for "changing the CAP" and redirecting international trade towards the aim of food sovereignty for populations. At the same moment, the Committee of Agricultural Organisations in the European Union (COPA) revealed its position on the upcoming phases in multilateral talks on agriculture. It urges that these should not be "sacrificed" to geopolitical interests. The two organisations put their ideas, in turn, to Commissioners Franz Fischler and Pascal Lamy.
The EFC considers that the international and European context more than ever calls for another Common Agricultural Policy, a policy that: - gives preference to supplying the internal market (without further export and import dumping); - brings into question the Blair House agreements (sealing renunciation of Community preference for cattle feed) and those of the World Trade Organisation (called on to "withdraw from the sector" to the benefit of UNCTAD where equitable trade rules must be established, whereas national or regional agricultural policies remain under regional union or States; - guarantees this preference for all products and abolishes export refunds; - ensures profitable agricultural prices with a multifunction rural agriculture, real control of production (compulsory "desintensification" measures together with transition and adjustment aids in some cases), as well as the quality and safety of food (a general ban on GMOs and animal meal, tightening up quality criteria, and making companies penally and financially liable) and maintaining a "living rural world" across the whole of the territory.
For the COPA President, Gerd Sonnleiter, farmers are caught between two opposing pressures, namely the need on the one hand to open up markets to free trade (which leads to a fall in prices) and the need on the other hand to strengthen food safety controls and abide by ever stricter rules concerning the environment (which pushes prices up). He appealed to the Commission's representatives at the WTO to ensure that the negotiations did not lead to another reform of the CAP that goes further than the decisions made in Agenda 2000.