Brussels, 18/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - Speaking to a handful of reporters on Tuesday, German Green MEP Friedrich-Wilhelm Grafe zu Baringdorf again called for codecision for the European Parliament on "fundamental questions on the Common Agricultural Policy", saying the European Commission should have supported this European Parliament demand, meaning it would then have been able to defend with the EP its draft reform of the CAP. The EP can share the European Commission's objectives and analysis of CAP reform, said the MEP, immediately adding that the Commission risked going only half-way again because of its "weakness" that made it "give way" before the Council, where lowest common denominator consensus is negotiated behind closed doors.
Grafe predicted that the European Convention would not propose codecision for the CAP, noting that France was applying strong pressure to ensure the CAP was not covered by codecision. He went further, fearing that Germany would end up having to "pay" for the support France had given it in refusing to accept a war on Iraq by concessions on extending codecision to the CAP. Graefe remembered the Berlin European Council that was held "in a difficult situation for Germany" (with the Balkans War) and where "fireside compromises were made from which Germany had suffered bitterly" in terms of agriculture.
Basically Graefe zu Baringdorf said that he supported the focus in the Commission's proposals on the second pillar of agricultural policy (rural development, see p.13), calling for a "democratisation" of the food industry to strengthen farmers' and consumers' rights against the powerful agri-food industry. The former President of the EP's Agriculture Committee said discussions of the CAP should be launched from the European Parliament.