Energy crop aid not best option

OFFERING an energy crop aid of €45 per hectare under the Common Agricultural Policy is no longer the best way of moving the bioenergy sector forward at farm level, European Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told a conference in Brussels.

She said that within the CAP Health Check, which she will present on May 20, she will propose to abolish the aid and use the money elsewhere in a more forward looking way.

Ms Fischer Boel said by fixing a biofuels usage target of 10% by 2020 the European Union has not made a leap in the dark. It has done its homework. That homework suggests it can meet that target without putting excessive strain on its food and feed markets.