There is no need to completely rewrite the CAP, says Fischer Boel

THE European Union may decide to change direction to some extent, but there is no need for completely rewriting the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Farm Commissioner Marian Fischer Boel made the comment at an informal Council of Ministers meeting in France.

She said that, in general terms, in the CAP Health Check, important topics were being examined.

These topics included the ability of European agriculture to respond robustly to market signals — especially when those signals were that the world needs more food.

They also included the need for the right kind of support for farmers so that crises did not turn into disasters for the agricultural production base, and the response to a number of crucial challenges such as climate change.

Ms Fischer Boel said broader environmental concerns and the general viability of rural areas could be added to the list.

She said there were enormous pressures on the EU budget, and there was fierce competition between different spending priorities.

The importance of agriculture and rural development went far beyond what could be expressed in figures for shares of gross domestic product or employment.

“We must get this message across clearly to politicians and the general public if we want an adequate budget for the CAP after 2013,” she said.

Ms Fischer Boel said the extent to which market forces were allowed to act within its farm sector was sometimes portrayed as a choice between “regu-lation” and “liberalism”.

“But this portrayal is false and it sabotages good debate. Fixing a CAP for the future is not about choosing between a command economy on the one hand and ‘law of the jungle’ liberalism on the other. We have many policy tools at our disposal that we can use to varying degrees.

“Finding the right combination is a task of hard pragmatic thinking, not ideological rhetoric,” she said.

Ms Fischer Boel said it was not the case that she had no concern for supporting farmers’ incomes.

The contrary was the case.

“So let’s remember what the economists tell us about this issue. They say that the most efficient way of supporting farmers’ incomes is through decoupled direct payments,” she said.