EU pledges to continue developing CAP into policy tool for 21st century

AS the European Union decides the best way forward after the collapse of the world trade talks, it has pledged to continue its domestic work of forging the Common Agricultural Policy into a policy tool for the 21st century.

Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, writing in the Yorkshire Post, said this approach will be one which addresses public concerns about a safe and secure food supply, competitive farming, caring for the environment, and vibrant rural areas.

She said agreement is expected this autumn on the next stage of the process — the so-called CAP health check.

“Whatever the next decade may hold for the CAP, I am confident of this: The days are over in which the CAP acted as a brake on international trade talks. As it showed last month in Geneva, the EU now has its foot firmly on the accelerator,” she wrote.

Ms Fischer Boel claimed the low profile of the EU in the blast of news coverage which followed the breakdown of the trade talks is significant.

“Quite rightly, the failure of the ministerial meeting was a serious defeat for trade and for international development. Ministers from developing countries recognised this all too clearly, even if many development organisations did not.

“Nevertheless, as I was packing my suitcase for the flight home, I felt encouraged by the role which the EU had played in the agricultural discussions.”

Ms Fischer Boel pointed out that no-one was laying the collapse of the talks at the door of the EU.

Noting that the future of the Doha Round of trade talks is not clear at this stage, Ms Fischer Boel added: “What is clear is that we must continue to bolster the multilateral trading system; only then will the benefits of trade be shared between the strong and the less strong.”