Brussels, 11/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference held to mark the start of the "Green Week" in Berlin, Commissioner Franz Fischler defended the principles of sustainable agriculture and competitiveness and categorically rejected all idea of scrapping the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). He did not hesitate to describe as "pointless and risky" all demands for a renationalisation of this policy. If, instead of a common policy, "we suddenly had not one common policy but 15 - in future maybe even 25 - (…) The Member States would try to out-subsidise each other and the single market would be at an end", he exclaimed. He also stressed that the Agenda 2000 reforms could not have been all that bad for farmers as, despite the disasters that have occurred, "farming incomes in the Union went up by 2.7% in 2001, in Germany by as much as 5.7%". Furthermore, he supported the idea of giving more power to the regions in order to share out aid to rural development.
On the subject of enlargement to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Mr Fischler recommended the phasing in of direct payments in candidate countries, in order not to hinder the necessary evolution of the existing structures. "When I call for the gradual introduction of the CAP, I do so not with a view to making savings. Quite the contrary: we are prepared to give greater financial backing to a comprehensive, sustainable rural development policy in the new Member States", explained the Commissioner, who also took a stance in favour of simplifying procedures for direct payments during the transition period in order to avoid unnecessary red tape and expense. He recalled that it was not necessary to forget that enlargement "is not an accountancy exercise. The important thing was to make agriculture and rural communities viable on a long-term basis and to create the right conditions especially for young people in the rural areas of the candidate countries to access alternative sources of income. The central and east European countries did not need structural change because of accession to the EU but in order to be successful in today's globalising world".