Brussels, 09/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 8 December, the European Parliament's agriculture committee called for “immediate and continued” action to ensure global food security. It considers that the €1 billion in aid decided by the EU for developing countries should be reinforced by further investment in agriculture, and calls in particular for mechanisms to be set in place to ensure the availability of sufficient stocks in the world. The own-initiative report on the subject by Mairead McGuinness (EPP-ED, Ireland), adopted unanimously in committee with a few amendments, will be discussed by the European Parliament during the plenary session in January 2009.
In two years, world food prices have increased by over 80% on average while cereal stocks reached the historically low and worrying level of 40 days' reserve in 2008, the Mairead McGuinness report states. According to the World Bank, over 860 million people in the world suffer from chronic starvation and this figure could increase by 100 million with the current crisis. Although the price of basic foodstuffs has now returned to levels close to those in 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) fear that price volatility will increase while global food demand is expected to double by 2050.
Ensuring sufficient global stocks. The EP agriculture committee above all calls for instruments to be set in place aimed at preventing spectacular and damaging price fluctuations. It above all considers that the EU should take the initiative to suggest at the same time a global inventory system of food stocks, the creation of an obligation to ensure the availability of foodstuffs at world level, and the improvement of storage systems for essential agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, etc.) in developing countries, preferably based on private actors, including cooperatives.
MEPs also hope for an overall analysis to be carried out on the impact that the rise in biofuel production will have on the price of basic foodstuffs. They stress the need for international and regional agreements to ensure that bio-energy crops do not endanger food supply security, and call for a firm commitment on the part of the EU to give preference to second generation biofuels which do not compete with food production.
Redirecting European development aid towards agriculture. Regretting the fact that development aid devoted to agriculture fell from 17% in 1980 to only 3% in 2006, MEPs urge the Commission to redirect Community programmes - including the European Development Fund (EDF) - towards agricultural development, and to do everything possible so that governments of beneficiary countries stick to their commitment to devote 10% of their national budgets to this sector. They also trust that new micro-credit facilities will be set in place for small farmers, underlining the major role of these farmers in increasing production and local food supply security. To complete development measures financed by the EU, the parliamentary committee calls, moreover, for a permanent food security fund to be set in place under Heading 4 of the budget (external action) to help the poorest people on the planet.
CAP, climate change, financial crisis and European research. MEPs consider that common agricultural policy (CAP) should remain the cornerstone of the EU's food security policy, including beyond 2013, and that, as such, it must be adapted over and beyond what was done within the framework of the health check. They call for agricultural spending to remain at a stable and constant level to ensure equitable revenue for farmers and insist that there should be effective insurance policies to allow producers to guard against massive price fluctuations.
MEPs urge the Commission to examine the agricultural impact of initiatives taken to address the problem of climate change and to provide means for this sector so that measures do not take the form of a cut in EU production. Furthermore, they call for a detailed assessment of the consequences of Community legislation proposed on phytosanitary products.
Finally, the agriculture committee presses for a research and development programme in the field of sustainable agriculture. (L.C./transl.jl)