Brussels, 20/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - As expected, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 20 May, the European Commission adopted its legislative proposals on the common agricultural policy (CAP) “health check”. Some of the amendments proposed (abolition of set-aside, increased decoupling of support, rise in milk quotas, etc) will give farmers the opportunity to “maximise their production potential,” the Commission says, believing it has taken full account of the rise in food prices.
The Commission proposes: - the abolition of the requirement for arable farmers to leave 10 percent of their land fallow; - a 1% annual increase in milk quotas (from 2009-2010 until 2013-2014), with quotas being abolished in 2015; - the removal of remaining coupled payments and shifting them to the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), with the exception of suckler cow, goat and sheep premiums; - the moving away from “historic” payments; - simplifying cross compliance rules (aid dependent on meeting environmental, animal welfare and good quality standards; - revision of Article 69 (which allows member states to retain 10% of their national budget ceilings for direct payments for environmental measures or improving quality and marketing of products) to support producers in disadvantaged regions (milk, beef, sheep and goat meat) and promote risk management measures (insurance schemes against natural disasters or mutual funds in case of animal diseases); - shifting more money from direct aid to rural development (taking the compulsory modulation rate from 5% to 13% by 2012); - further reductions in aid for large farms (3%; 6% and 9% for farms receiving more than €100,000, €200,000 and €300,000 respectively); - the abolition of intervention for durum wheat, rice and pig meat (for feed grains, intervention will be set at zero, and for bread wheat, butter and skimmed milk powder, tendering will be introduced); - the application by member states of a minimum payment per farm of €250 or for a minimum size of one hectare (or both); - the inclusion in SPS of small sectors (hemp, dried fodder, protein crops and nuts, starch potatoes and long fibre flax.
Addressing the European Parliament agriculture committee, Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that “We need to take great care when looking at price increases”. Between last autumn and April 2008, dairy prices dropped by around 30%, she said, and from March to April, wheat prices fell by almost 20%. Despite everything, she went on, the fact remained that the economic and political backdrop to the health check was not the same today as two years ago. “Does this mean that the health check is no longer relevant? Absolutely not!” the commissioner said. In her opinion, “There is nothing in the current situation that shows we should make a U-turn, either to the left or to the right,” in our policy. This was neither the time to begin micro-management of European agricultural production (pushing and pulling the levers of policy week by week to hit targets), she said, nor the time to simply abolish the CAP.
Speaking to press in Strasbourg, the commissioner said that the proposed reform responded to the food crisis. She is proposing the permanent abolition of set-aside. No one could have understood why 10% of Europe's land was not being cultivated when the world was facing a serious food crisis, she said. “Member states which want to maintain the historical model agreed in 2003 will be able to do so,” she went on. She pointed out that, if all the countries have ratified the Lisbon Treaty in time, it will come into effect on 1 January 2009 and bring with it co-decision with the European Parliament on all matters agricultural. She hoped that this agricultural package could still be adopted this year, thus avoiding serious delay next year as a result of the European elections.
European Parliament rapporteur on the CAP health check Lutz Goepel (CSU) told press that he welcomed the disappearance of the word “degressivity” of aid, and the shift to “progressive modulation” which he himself had proposed. Only 22% of payments would be affected, instead of 58% with degressivity, he said. When asked what she thought of the WTO's new proposals on agriculture (see related article), Fischer Boel said that her staff would consider the detail of the texts and the Commission would in all likelihood adopt a position next week. (L.C./O.J.).