Brussels, 15/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau, thirteen EU counties - France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Finland, Luxemburg, Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Lithuania - have signed a “memorandum on the implementation and future of the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)”. These countries, which are trying to bring Germany on board, will present the above-mentioned document at the Agriculture Council on 20 March. They make proposals which would allow the EU “to make the necessary additions to the structure of the current CAP”. These proposals seek to “lighten the burden” of CAP management rules and to bring “new responses” to the consequences of greater producer exposure to world markets, resulting from the increasing openness of the Community market and the sharp reduction in public intervention.
International trade: confronted with new challenges, Europe has to build its strategy around three major ideas if it is to participate at a satisfactory level in international agricultural trade. Firstly, the EU must take accompanying measures, until 2013, that go beyond the reforms already launched, to secure the global competitiveness of European agriculture and promote sustainability, while ensuring a high level of safety and quality of foodstuffs. Secondly, an adequate level of Community preference is required as European requirements for foods, environmental and animal welfare standards are more stringent than those of international competitors. Thirdly, the EU must continue to place its agricultural policy at the heart of its political project, by maintaining its community nature and re-affirming its refusal of any re-nationalisation of the CAP.
35% of budget in 2013: the document points out that the CAP has been able to adapt to profound changes since its creation and highlights the improvements of the 2003 reform. The CAP, including rural development, is one of the main common policies, but represents only 0.43% approximately of EU Gross National Income (GNI), whereas research - mainly financed by national budgets - represents 2% of EU GNI. Taking account of funding for rural development, the CAP today represents 40% of the EU budget, compared with 65% in 1990. In 2013, it will represent only 35% according to the memorandum.
Simplification: the 2003 reform of the CAP allowed the setting up of a single payment to farms (direct aid not linked to volume of production). The thirteen countries call for other measures to lessen the administrative burden that farmers have to bear: - re-examination and specification of cross-compliance rules (payment of aid on condition that certain environmental and quality criteria are met), especially concerning food legislation; - greater flexibility in organising controls; - adapting the regulatory framework to the options afforded by new technology, such as remote sensing and electronic data processing; - simplification of the Community legal framework for the organisation of the supply chain and adaptation of agricultural guidelines for State aid to clarify the status of collective action financed by the sector.
Meeting future challenges: the countries which signed the memorandum argue for new tools compatible with multilateral trade disciplines “to provide better protection for agricultural incomes over the long term”: - increasing the current threshold of 3000 euro per farm and over three years for emergency support known as “de minimis”, in order to better manage localised and limited sectoral crises; - reinforcing protection for internal markets through improved Community management of safeguard mechanisms; - establishing an insurance scheme allowing farmers to take greater responsibility for the management of climatic, economic and even health risks, financial support that could come from the use of part of the one percentage point of modulation (reduction in direct aid) provided for in the 2003 reform; - creation of specific instruments for the various sectors of production, especially wine and fruit and vegetables, including non-compulsory private equalisation funds (to lessen the impact of fluctuation in market prices paid to farmers), aid for private storage, processing aid, aid for voluntary reduction of production and promotion campaigns. These actions would also be financed through savings made through the one percentage point of modulation.
Ambitious vision for the future: the countries stress that European agriculture “deserves a vision for the future that is ambitious”, and “in tune with the profound global changes that may be anticipated” (world population growth, tensions in relation to some natural resources such as water and arable land, global warming and development of non-food commercial applications for agricultural raw materials). According to the memorandum, these developments clearly point in one direction: towards a “European agriculture that is dynamic and focused on the sustainable development of a vital agricultural and agrifood sector capable of constantly and swiftly adapting to change”.