On November 14, European Union farm ministers have finally found a compromise that would ensure the financing of the EU Most Deprived Programme (MDP) for 2012 and 2013. Nevertheless, this agreement does seal its fate and prepares the way for its disappearance after 2013.

MDP was put in place by the European Community in 1987. At that time, there were surplus food stocks in the European Union, some of which began to be distributed to charitable associations which asked for it. A year earlier, the famous French comedian Coluche, had successfully persuaded the then president of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, to give some of the CAP surpluses to the destitute. A few months previously, Coluche had founded  the French food relief agency “Restos du coeur” (literally ‘restaurants of the heart’). [more]

Press release: Paris, November 26th

A group of French organisations with shared interests in defending the environment, sustainable agriculture and development, international solidarity and rural movements, have reacted to a communication issued by the European Commission about the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013, published on November 18.

Our organisations have welcomed with interest the European Commission’s Communication entitled: The CAP towards 2020: Meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future.

We welcome the Commission’s willingness to encourage sustainable practices and production systems to ensure the supply of environmental services, as well as the integration of the environment and the fight against climate change as guiding principles in the future development of rural development policy. However, it is still too early to ascertain whether this “greening” is real or fake. [more]

The new Barroso team was unveiled November 27. Romania has finally got the portfolio she wanted, namely agriculture and rural development. Undoubtedly, this is a diplomatic victory for a country that had got a lean post of commissioner for multilingualism in the current Commission.

The appointment of Dacian Ciolos as next farm commissionner was far from assured. Indeed in early October, the President of the Commission still refused to give such a large portfolio to a country that does not properly managed EU funds. According to other criticism, farm portfolio should not to go to a large agricultural country. But what is a large agricultural country ? These arguments were echoed by the British press and some European agricultural media who campaigned against a candidate suspected of being “the French guy.” [more]

Within the CAP health check framework, the dairy sector became the fifth element of the “new challenges” list, behind four other priorities for the future of European agriculture: climate change, renewable energy, water management and biodiversity. Why dairy sector ? In return for his acceptance of a gradual increase of milk quotas, Germany, as the largest producer of the EU, has struggled to get a dairy fund in the agreement of Nov. 20th 2008, to fund measures accompanying the restructuring of the dairy sector “through the pillar of rural development. Specifically, the dairy fund will provide investment support to improve the competitiveness of farms and cooperatives face the scheduled phasing out of quotas in 2015. Funding for these actions will be undertaken with the money generated from progressive modulation at 4% rate, targeting farms receiving more than 300 000 €, in addition to the compulsory modulation that will increase from 7% in 2009 to 10% in 2010 . What does this mean in terms of additional funding for rural development ? According to the European Commission, this will provide a total of 3, 241 Billions euros between 2010 and 2013. These measures will be funded at 75% by Brussels (90% in the most disadvantaged regions).

In reality, each Member state is free to prioritize these new challenges, i.e.  to concentrate all resources on the dairy sector and by making the impasse on others. According to German environmental organizations, the Bundesländer, who are the authorities on rural development programs in Germany, intend to devote the bulk of the money to build new stables in the dairy sector, involving more intensive production, accepting milk prices lower, with fewer producers, and with less grassland in perspective. On the other side of the Rhine in France, Michel Barnier recently announced a budget of 45 Millions euros for milk mountain, roughly 20 euros per tonne of milk.

Member States and regions are invited to submit Rural Development plans for their actions under the new challenges before June 30th 2009 for implementation on January 1st 2010. Until then, Member states must find an agreement to abolish a rule of EAFRD (Funding 2nd pillar) which restricts investment support to dairy farmers based on their available quota. In other words, the second pillar of the CAP will fund an increase in milk production in exchange for lower prices paid to producers.

Dairy producers (some of them anyway) can thanks the taxpayers. After the come back of export refunds and subsidies for private storage in last December for butter and powdered milk unmarketable, the toolbox of Rural Development will provide the means of restructuring the dairy, targeting subsidies towards competitive holdings. In the jargon of Commission officials, this is called a soft landing… It is unfortunate that other ways to produce milk, economically efficient and ecologically friendly, with less inputs and with few subsidies, are not taken into consideration within the CAP. Even more unfortunate, finally, a dairy policy based on supply management would cost much less for the EU budget.

Position paper - February 2008

The French organisations signing this document wish to examine and comment on the Commission’s “health check” in greater depth, and to put forward approaches for improvements that would anticipate on foreseeable trends. The challenges that a European policy will be facing reach far beyond consultations with agricultural and food industry interests alone, for they encompass the whole gamut of social demands and issues concerning food, the environment, climate change and rural development.

Dowload the document

A new report from Coordination SUD.

Agriculture occupied centre stage in the last round of multilateral trade negotiations at the World Trade
Organisation (WTO). This should in particular work in favour of the Developing Countries (DCs) for whom agriculture is often of capital importance in terms of contribution to the national wealth or the combat against poverty.

European subsidies are accused of distorting competition between the agricultural products exported by the European Union (EU) and those of the South. The international solidarity NGOs have in particular denounced the negative repercussions of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on the farmers of the DCs in a few key sectors such as milk, sugar, poultry or bovine meat, in certain regions or countries such as West Africa, Jamaica, Kenya and India. Moreover, many of them have no faith in the reforms that have been set in motion. On the contrary, they denounce the fact that the green box (WTC) is used by the EU and the United States to continue to subsidise their agriculture massively to the detriment of the DCs.

The purpose of this study is to put into perspective the recent reforms of the CAP with the evolution of European exports agricultural and food between 1995 and 2006.

Download the Coordination SUD report : CAP reforms and European presence on the markets of the DCs

La Cour des Comptes de l’Union Européenne a rendu son rapport La conditionnalité est-elle une politique efficace ? Tout en rappelant l’importance de la conditionnalité pour la PAC, elle invite la Commission à en clarifier les objectifs et les champs d’application, à mieux l’articuler avec le développement rural, et sans surprise enfin, à en simplifier le cadre juridique.

S’appuyant sur des enquêtes réalisés dans plusieurs Etats membres, le rapport révèle par exemple qu’à défaut de disposer du même système métrique, les Etats adoptent des largeurs obligatoires de bandes tampons le long des cours d’eau très variables : 0,6 m en Finlande, 5 ou 10 m en France, entre 0,25 et 9 m aux Pays-Bas. La liste des exemples de ce genre est bien documentée.

Ce rapport vient rappeler que les Etats membres ont une responsabilité cruciale dans la réalisation des objectifs de la conditionnalité des aides. Même si on regrette qu’elle soit trop administrative sur le plan des directives et des règlements, et trop peu agronomique sur le plan des bonnes conditions agricoles et environnementales (BCAE), cet instrument de sanction qui s’impose aux Etats et non aux agriculteurs implique des contrôles effectifs et un système de sanction proportionnel aux fautes commises pour se révéler pleinement efficace.

Accord difficile sur la PAC, mais compromis tout de même à l’issue d’un marathon des ministres de l’Agriculture de l’Union européenne à Bruxelles qui s’est terminé le 20 novembre au matin. Les pays européens se sont donc mis d’accord pour réaménager la Politique agricole commune via un relèvement progressif des quotas laitiers et un transfert des subventions à la production vers le développement rural.

A lire : le document du compromis final sur le bilan de santé : final-compromise-clean