PRESS RELEASE - Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
In response to the Commission’s publication of the legal texts on the CAP reform, the Greens/EFA group maintain their previously expressed strong concerns. Martin Häusling, Agricultural Policy Spokesman of the Greens/EFA Group, comments:
"Although there are elements in the CAP proposal post 2020 which look quite good at a first glance, such as capping and rhetoric on supporting better small scale farms, the devil lies in the detail. We already see lowering of ambition by the Commission on compulsory capping at 100 000 from 60 000 Euro, knowing that Member States will try to water the proposal down further.
We need strong conditionality so that CAP at least does no harm environmentally and socially, ensuring full sustainability, and at best delivers positive outcomes and increases resilience. A lack of obligations at EU level will create weak measures in the Member States with too much scope for backsliding and low ambition. For example, if the German government already stated in their coalition agreement that climate goals will not be met, we would be foolish to believe that Member States will keep the target of 40% greenhouse gas reductions. Furthermore, there is no financial commitment to sustainable measures like those that we had with the Greening measures.
Otherwise, the cuts foreseen for rural development in real terms are 25%, which is disastrous. In this light, we must not leach pubic money towards programmes that risk rapidly eating up all available funds, like private insurance schemes, or costly machinery as part of the digitalisation agenda that would continue input dependency and increase indebtedness amongst farmers; full intensification with smart technology will continue intensification and overproduction, with its negative impact on developing markets.
There is much work to do to develop the proposal and given the huge impact these changes will have on farmers and consumers, is important that is time for a proper dialogue and that we avoid the bulldozer approach which will only favour the status quo.”
Briefing soon.