Brussels, 26/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a memorandum on the mid-term review of the common agricultural policy (Cap), that she is to present to her counterparts at the next Agriculture Council (18 March), the German Minister for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, Renate Kunast considers that "all direct aid of the Cap should be gradually reduced, redirecting part of the savings to the second pillar (rural development)"
The German memorandum is in favour of the principle of "compulsory modulation" of direct aid, as well as the redeployment of only part of the sums saved towards rural development in the Member States concerned, but with national co-financing. The "second pillar" should be able to be used more flexibly, for example to support alternative income or for promoting animal wellbeing. For Berlin, the simplified scheme for granting aid to small farmers in the Community (lump sum aid, see EUROPE of 20 June 2001, p.6) should also in the long term be part of rural development measures. Germany considers, moreover, that the sugar and ovine meat sectors should be integrated in the reform process, like wheat, rice, tobacco, olive oil and cotton and has more precise wishes for the following sectors: - beef and milk: introduction of a premium for grass unattached to production, without additional budgetary spending; - arable crops: the medium-term goal would consist in abolishing the intervention and land set-aside system, incorporate leguminous fodder plants and clover in the direct aid system and gradually abolish the advantages that ensilage corn benefits from. In the long term, Germany says it is in favour of the introduction of a single and lump sum surface payment applicable to all sectors, depending on ecological and socio-economic criteria (See EUROPE of 13 February, p.14, for the document presented by Italy on the mid-term review).