Brussels, 31/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 6 December, the European Commission could propose the creation of a single common organisation of the markets (COM) in agriculture, to replace the current 21 COM. This move would also allow 35 sectoral regulations to be removed. The Commission's aim is to put in place a single harmonised rules instrument in the following areas: intervention, private storage, import tariff quotas, export refunds, safeguard measures, promotion of agricultural products, state aid and communication of data. Producers' organisations fear that this is a further attempt by the Commission to get rid of some market management tools.
At the Agriculture Council in Luxemburg on 24 October, Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that the single COM would mean that not only would the legislation be more transparent and more accessible, it would also reduce the administrative burden weighing down on countries and economic operators. She said that the simplification would lead to a reduction of 75% in the pages published in the Official Journal. She gave assurances that the initiative would not serve as a pretext for political decisions. “COM content and instruments will not be changed,” she said.
After their congress in Strasbourg, European farmers said the simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “should not lead to a further weakening or a total deregulation of the CAP”. On 5 October, the farmers' organisation Coordination paysanne européenne (CPE) said, “Under the guise of simplification, the Commission is in reality proposing to get rid of agricultural market management tools”. At the conference on the simplification of the CAP, held on 3-4 October (see EUROPE 9279), the chairman of the Parliamentary agriculture committee Joseph Daul (EPP-ED, France) stated that “to be credible, simplification must first of all be of benefit to farmers and have a real impact on their daily lives”. “How far is such harmonisation possible, or even desirable, given the long-term danger of having rules, which may certainly be harmonised and rationalised, but distanced from the needs of the sector and therefore less efficient,” Mr Daul wondered. (lc)