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| THE AGRICULTURAL POLICY UNDER DEBATE IN BRUSSELS 30/07/2010 |
| Last updated: 2010-08-03 14:39 EET |
The aim of this synthesis conference, which lasted for 2 days, was to formulate conclusions regarding the public debate related to the period after 2013 launched by the Commission in April. Then, the Commission asked the public at large to give answers to several questions regarding the Common Agricultural Policy: “Why do we need a Common Agricultural Policy?” What do people expect from agriculture? Why reform the CAP? What instruments do we need for tomorrow’s CAP?
In two months as many as 6 thousand e-mails and contributions were received and 80 reflection groups and 93 NGOs expressed their stand on the issue. Loyal competition between farmers, the food industry and the distributors, preserving the diversity of agriculture in all the EU states and guaranteeing food supplies were the themes to which the public and the NGOs answered to a large extent. The citizens’ expectations related to agriculture refer to access to safe foodstuffs at affordable prices, using lands in a sustainable way and maintaining the dynamism of rural communities. Through aid granted to farmers, Europeans want them to also protect the environment in the sense of preserving landscapes with a cultural value, protecting endangered species and maintaining water and land quality.
The Commission has analyzed all these answers and has concluded that there are seven major challenges for the future, as the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, has explained: quote “At this conference, a common vision on the big challenges of the future has taken shape. We need to find answers to 7 major challenges: foodstuffs, globalization, the environment, competitiveness, human habitation, agricultural diversity and simplifying European norms. We need to respect nature balance and in this framework we should look for economic performance. I want to make it clear that farmers should not feel guilty that they are supported from public funds”. Unquote
The European Commissioner for Agriculture also pleaded for modernizing farming areas using new, innovative means. The Romanian minister of agriculture, Mihai Dumitru, who attended the debate in Brussels, said:
“Many of the suggestions expressed there are in agreement with our stand and suggestions. We are talking about the big trends, the budgetary level, the future architecture of the CAP, the forms of support and the distribution among states; the ideas expressed there are in accordance with what we want, namely to preserve at least the current budget level, to have a CAP with two pillars (that is supporting farmers’ incomes and rural development), to have an agriculture that should play an important role in the European economic architecture and also to have a fair distribution of aid among states, conducted according to objective criteria”.
While the Nordic states, Germany and Britain insist that most funds should go into rural development, other states are in favour of maintaining the current considerable budget for farmers in the form of subsidies. Although Romania has the second largest rural development programme in Europe after Poland, Romanian agriculture falls short of meeting European standards, said Romania’s agriculture minister Mihai Dumitru at a seminar held recently. In the opinion of the European commissioner for agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, the increase in the competitiveness of the Romanian agriculture sector depends on continued investments and on the way in which Romanian authorities implement the common agricultural policy. Dacian Ciolos:
“In the short run, subsidies are an important element. Let us be clear, though, subsidies will not reduce the gap in competitiveness, but only help farmers for a certain amount of time to overcome with this gap so that they may continue to invest. It is not sufficient, therefore, to balance subsidies between the East and the West of Europe. My goal is to ensure a fairer distribution of direct financial aid. Direct payments should clearly contribute to the attainment of certain goals, such as ensuring stable income for farmers and encouraging farmers take into account issues related to the environment, the rational management of natural resources and social inclusion in their technological decisions.”
Besides its European challenges, Romania must also address many internal issues connected to agriculture. The food sector in this country is facing a lot of problems, says Mihai Lungu, a former state secretary in the Agriculture Ministry, currently the director of a company working in the meat industry:
“We have three major problems. First, we have to pay very high interest rates to banks. For example, we pay interest rates of 20% to the Romanian Commercial Bank when our colleagues in Germany pay rates of 2 to 3%. Second, there are big problems when it comes to tax evasion, which has reached worrying levels. Tax evaders hold in effect the biggest share of the meat market, and not just that. Thirdly, we are confronted with the problem of the lack of subsidies. For example, while a farmer from Germany gets 380 euros per hectare of farmland, Romanian farmers only receive 80 euros per hectare once in a while.”
In November, the European Commission will send member states a document on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy which will also contain the conclusions of the debates in Brussels. Agriculture accounts for the biggest portion of the European Union budget in the form of subsidies and aid granted to farmers.
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2010-09-10
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