Europeans aware of need for strong common social/agricultural policy

EUROPEANS are primarily aware of the need for a strong common policy, focused on agriculture and serving society as a whole.

That was the underlying message from a two-month public consultative process conducted by the European Commission on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, speaking at the opening of a two-day conference on the CAP post-2013 in Brussels yesterday, said four major themes had emerged.