Policy Focus

MEPs split over CAP health check proposals

STRASBOURG – MEPs are divided over the outcome of the European commission’s health check of the common agricultural policy (CAP).

UK conservative deputy Neil Parish, chair of parliament’s agriculture committee said the proposals were, "nowhere near strong enough”.

“"We need to move more money moved from direct payments into environmental schemes and there is a strong case for moving support from cereal production into sectors that really need support to survive”.

“We need a far more wide scale reform of the CAP to bring it up to date with the trials we face in the 21st century,” Parish added.

The CAP health check proposals were announced on Tuesday by EU agriculture chief Mariann Fischer-Boel.

Plans include reducing direct subsidies to individual farms, a “decoupling” of subsidies and farm production and raising milk quotas by one per cent annually from 2009 to 2013.

Fischer Boel defended the proposals, stressing that they constituted a mid-term revision of Europe’s agriculture policy rather than full-scale change.

“This health check is not a fundamental reform,” she said at a press conference.

"These are balanced proposals that meet the challenges of today," she added.

She also said that with the issue of global food prices high on the political agenda, an evaluation of EU agriculture was timely.

“Against this backdrop, our proposals make perfect sense,” she said.

Danish ALDE deputy Neils Busk welcomed the CAP reforms.

“More decoupling and a move away from historical payments are much needed to make the CAP a strong and sound basis for the future of European food production,” said Busk, ALDE coordinator in the agriculture committee, in a press release.

ALDE group leader Graham Watson also added his support.

“"These proposals signal a further shift in policy towards financing rural development in line with the challenges of today… we shall strive to translate the Commission's vision into a modern, effective and sustainable agricultural policy for the years ahead,” he said.

But some MEPs are however angry that certain changes they see as essential were not included in the health check proposals.

“The scandalous imbalance in public support at the disadvantage of the vast majority of European farmers persists… commissioner Fischer Boel has also bowed to pressures from member states with large scale farming lobbies and ignored parliament proposals that included an employment incentive for those farms which were supposed to face substantial cuts,” said German Green deputy Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf.

“With such weak proposals, the parliament must insist on a co-decision process,” he added.