EU agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos (DG agriculture) launched on 12 April a public debate on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. And limiting the payments to some of Europe’s largest farmers, a topic wiped off the table in 2007, is back.
The debate is organised to give people the chance to have a say in how the CAP is structured after the-2012 reforms, what its objectives should be and how these can be delivered, particularly within the context of the 'Europe 2020' economic strategy.
In 2014 the union's current budgetary period (2007-2013) comes to an end. And it is to be expected that major changes will be placed on the agenda among which the EU's system of direct payment to farmers.
The future shape of Europe's agricultural policy has already provoked heated debate across the union. CAP payments amount to approximately €55 billion a year, more than 40 percent of EU's entire annual budget. With the new influence of the European Parliament on agricultural policy, a result of the Lisbon Treaty, this will become a more controversially discussed topic, as well as the high agricultural subsidies paid to a few large-scale commercial businesses. On the other side figures recently published by Eurostat prove that between 2000 and 2009 employment in the agricultural sector in the EU27 decreased by 25%, the equivalent of 3.7 million full-time jobs. It fell by 17% in the EU15 and by 31% in the 12 New Member States (NMS). "These figures underline what a difficult year farmers faced last year, and how important CAP support was in maintaining farm incomes and stabilising prices using the existing market instruments," said EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloș. "Without the basic income stability provided by direct aids, farmers would not be able to deliver the public goods that they provide. Nevertheless, we need to make our policy more efficient and more easily understood and our agriculture more sustainable and more competitive. This is why I have launched a public debate on clarifying the main objectives for further reforming the CAP after 2013." The suggestions from stakeholders will then be fed into a communication on CAP reform towards the end of this year, with legislative proposals set to come forward in 2011.
CEMA is preparing an input of the agricultural equipment industry on relevant CAP-components. The position shall be ready in late autumn 2010.
