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Friends of the Earth Europe reaction to the European Commission proposals for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, 10 July 2002, in front of the Breydel Building Brussels
 

Press Release July 10th, 2002 For Immediate Release

Friends of the Earth Europe: “Fischler proposals are step forward, but reforms don’t go far enough”

FoE comments on Mid Term Review of Common Agricultural Policy

Friends of the Earth supports the reforms proposed by Fischler as a step forward for a greening of the Common Agricultural Policy:

·      More Cross Compliance is necessary. All payments should be conditional on strict environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards.

·      Introducing a single income payment, decoupled from production, will reduce the pressure towards intensification of agriculture.

·      Fischler proposes to cut (via modulation) gradually direct payments and increase the funding available for Rural Development. FoE supports increasing funds for agri-environmental measures within Rural Development and supports exempting smaller farms from the cuts, as Fischler proposes.

Friends of the Earth calls on the ministers of the Member States not to water down these proposals, but to take them further.

Fischler fails to address a central flaw of the CAP, namely the goal of being competitive on the world market. The continued fixation on exports leads to subsidized dumping on developing countries, and puts farmers in poor countries out of work. Also European farmers suffer as they are being asked to perform two mutually exclusive tasks at the same time. First, international competitiveness can only be achieved by increasing efficiency through larger scale, more intensive farming. But at the same time, society demands higher standards of social, environmental and animal welfare. The two objectives simply cannot go together and the EU has to choose for the last option.
Export subsidies have to be abolished. The new goals of the CAP should be:
 quality food, sustainable farming, localization and local diversity.

Friends of the Earth campaigns for sustainable farming, quality food, and a localization of the food chain:
less food miles and more local diversity.
Learn more about the Friends of the Earth Europe agriculture campaign under www.choosefoodchoosefarming.org

Contacts: Kees Kodde, +31(0)20 - 550 73 78, +31 6 29 59 38 75 kees.kodde@milieudefensie.nl
Joanna Dober, +32(0)2 – 542 01 88, joanna.dober@foeeurope.org
 

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