Common agricultural policy: "Health check" makes right diagnosis but proposes wrong therapy
Commenting on European Commission legislative proposals on the so called "Health Check" of the Common Agriculture Policy, German Green MEP Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf said:
"The legislative proposals presented by the EU Commission today on the 'Health Check' of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) fall short of the ambitious proposals made in November last year. Direct payments, which are still based on historical yields and landownership, were supposed to be substantially cut in favour of strengthening environmental and employment benefits. This proposal has disappeared.
The scandalous imbalance in public support at the disadvantage of the vast majority of European farmers persists. Rationalised farm enterprises with more than 1000 hectares receive up to €120,000 per employee while the great majority of family farms do not receive more than €5,000 per person per year. 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.
Facing increased competition between food and fuel production, the Commission suggests to scrap subsidies for energy crops - and to shift the money into future generations of agro-fuels which may make things worse. It would be wiser to invest in energy saving in the wasteful food chain and to make better use of waste material.
The Commission chooses to address the problem of rising costs for animal feed instead of making proposals for a better balance between plant and animal production in Europe. It also sticks to its strategy to increase the milk quota by 4% until 2013 and to drop the quota system by 2015, which will put additional pressure on farm gate prices for milk farmers and squeeze small milk farmers out of business.
The Commission made a correct diagnosis of problems our farmers face, but the therapy is wrong. With such weak proposals, the Parliament must insist on a co-decision process and reject pressure from the Commission to pass the health check via consultation procedure."
