CAP reform is not on ice, says Fischler

THE reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has not been put on ice, EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said in Dublin yesterday.

He said the recent EU Summit made no statements to that effect. He said the heads of state do not expressly rule out the possibility of the mid-term review being adopted before 2006 nor do they prevent decisions from not being implemented until after 2006.

“The Summit’s decisions have not changed our objectives or the need to continue with the process of reforming the CAP.”

Mr Fischler said a more market-oriented approach in agriculture is needed and agricultural production must be geared toward consumer demand.

One major consequence of the Summit was that 70% of the direct payments for the new member states, as well as the implementation of all upcoming reforms, would have to be accommodated within a CAP budget frozen at the level of 2006.

“The cake will have a similar size as today, but more people will want and need to eat from it. But there is also a positive side of this fixed budget. We now know how much money we will have available until 2013. This is a clear mandate to try and guarantee long-term planning security for our farmers,” he said.

The Summit made it clear that measures decided on in Berlin, or necessary as a result of the Doha Development Round, or because of other international commitments, could very well be implemented before 2006.

“The Commission proposal to remove the link between income payments and production is alive.”

The Commissioner said in the light of the commitments the EU has made in the Doha Development Round and at the Johannesburg Summit for Sustainable Development, decoupling is more necessary than ever. Next March, the modalities of how to reduce trade-distorting farm support will be on the WTO table.

Then it will become evident the sole alternative to decoupling, which would safeguard direct payments by making them non-trade-distorting, is a brusque cut of direct payments. He doubted this will be the preferred option of the Irish farm sector.

“Only a farmer prepared to maintain all his...land in an agriculturally justifiable state in line with the requirements of environmental protection will receive the direct payments.”