Brussels, 17/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference on the opening of the "Green Week" in Berlin, Franz Fischler, the European Commissioner responsible for agriculture and fisheries, confirmed that the Commission will be presenting, on 22 January, its updated project for CAP reform (see EUROPE of 15 January, p.13). The project will be the subject of a first examination by the Fifteen during the meeting of the Agriculture/Fisheries Council on 27 and 28 January (the "Agriculture" Council initially scheduled for 20 January has been taken off the timetable).
Speaking to journalists, Franz Fischler said that, for him, "2003 is a year of decisions. We can only give our farmers certainty for planning ahead if we take courageous agricultural policy decisions by the middle of the year. Only then will the farming sector be commercially competitive, environmentally sustainable and above all accepted by the public at large. If, on the other and, we go down the path of political indecision and fail to carry out reforms, we will harm our farmers' interests, limit the opportunities open to future generations and come under increasing social and international pressure". The Commissioner went on to say: Therefore I see no reason at all to hold back the reform of the common agricultural policy. (…) Then we can negotiate in earnest and hopefully reach a decision by the middle of the year and give our farmers the certainty they need to plan ahead. We can only give them this when we have laid down the financial framework and mapped out our farm policy up to 2013, and that is exactly what I have resolved to do in 2003". Mr Fischler, speaking incisively, felt that "agricultural policy must be accepted by society as a whole and not just by a few vested interests. In times of budget cutbacks and a slow economy it is doubly important to be able to show citizens in black and white that putting their taxes into agricultural policy is a safe investment (…). Nothing would be more detrimental to farmers' interests than losing public support".
Taking advantage of the platform thus provided, the Commissioner set out the five main principles contained in the Commission's reform proposals: (1) "We want to stop forcing framers to grow produce for which there is no reward on the market just for the sake of subsidies. Uncoupling aid will enable them to produce what they see as providing the best opportunities for them. Being more market-oriented will in turn benefit consumers, because farmers will then logically be producing what consumers want. Scientific studies show that direct payments to farmers, without a link to production, would not be the end of farming nor lead to the Europe-wide food shortages predicted by some doom-mongers. On the contrary, in the cereals sector, output levels would scarcely be affected. And although output would drop by 3% in the beef sector, the shift to less intensive and more quality-oriented production methods in this sector would have the side effect of increasing farmers' incomes by 4%. This is what counts!" (2) "The focus of assistance will in future be farmers themselves, not how many cattle they keep or how many tonnes of wheat they produce, as in the past". (3) "As a return for services rendered, we will establish a link between society's expectations of what farmers should be delivering and the rewards they receive, and thus help to make the public goods they supply more "marketable". (4) "New measures will be introduced as part of a better-resourced rural development policy to directly reward farmers for the work they do to improve the environment, animal welfare and product quality". And (5) "We will also make our policies more transparent and simplify our agricultural systems, because I am convinced that this will improve acceptability not just for farmers, but also for the public at large."
By way of conclusion, Mr Fischler stressed that the Commission intends to "make more of the running" in the current round of WTO negotiations. He insisted: "To do that, we need these reforms. Our policy will then no longer be trade-distorting and thus no longer open to attack in the WTO. On the contrary, if we act early enough, it will be that much easier for us to get our trading partners to meet our demands. These centre on our vital commercial interests, safeguarding our farmers' future, food safety and protection of origin, animal welfare and environmental protection, consumer concerns and, more particularly, the justified demands of the developing countries".