MAGAZINE - Copa-Cogeca

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4 │ April 2012 Copa President Gerd Sonnleitner presents new Copa-Cogeca detailed reaction to EU commission proposals on CAP post-2013, highlighting measures to ensure food security, productivity, sustainable growth and employment Presenting Copa-Cogecas’ new detailed reaction to the EU Commission’s legislative proposals on the future CAP to 2020, Copa President Gerd Sonnleitner highlighted the need to boost productivity and efficiency in a sustainable way, warning that the Commission proposals to further green the CAP are too bureaucratic, will not increase sustainability or have the desired effect. Copa President Gerd Sonnleitner stressed “If the EU agricultural sector is to meet society’s concerns over the coming years it must confront two major challenges. First, how to ensure food security in the face of rising world demand, dwindling resources of land and water and climate change. Secondly, how to contribute to much-needed economic growth and employment. The answer is to improve the productivity and efficiency of EU agriculture and to do it in a sustainable way. If EU agriculture can respond positively to these challenges, we believe the public will recognise that the cost of the CAP – less than 1% of EU public expenditure –is an extremely good investment”. But he warned that the Commission proposals to impose further mandatory environmental constraints on farmers, without taking into account the impact on food security, will actually undermine farmers’ ability to meet these challenges and weaken their position. Applying the same 3 measures across-the-board to 13 million EU farms is not the best way to achieve environmental benefits and will, at the same time, increase farm costs, reduce production and have a negative impact on farmers’ already low incomes. He criticised the Commission plans to reduce the amount of agricultural land available for production, saying in many member states it would mean taking 7% of land out of production, not less as suggested by the Commission. This will mean less raw materials for the food industry and less feed for livestock, which will have serious effects on the EU dairy and beef sectors which are already being squeezed by high input costs. He continued “That is why Copa-Cogeca is calling for the CAP to focus on measures which ensure green growth in the future: measures which benefit the environment at the same time as maintaining production capacity, efficiency and employment. There should be an EU list of measures so that farmers can make a choice based on their own farm situation”. He insisted “The Commission’s proposal to cap direct payments also runs counter to achieving a more dynamic and efficient sector since it would penalise farms which have improved their structure, or wished to do so through economies of scale”. Copa-Cogeca is also calling for a fair and equitable treatment of farmers, taking into account differences in conditions, when redistributing the budget between Member States. The move towards a more uniform hectare payment within Member States proposed by the Commission will have extremely adverse effects on some farmers and they must be given more time and flexibility to adapt. Mr Sonnleitner went on to underline the need for more CAP simplification, saying that many Ministers and MEPs also agree with Copa-Cogeca views on having much less red tape and less greening under the future CAP, in order to ensure a dynamic, innovative sector in the future which employs around 40 million people. The future CAP must focus on improving the economic performance of farmers and cooperatives as well as improve the functioning of the food chain to ensure they get a better return from the market. But in view of the current financial crisis hanging over us, Mr Sonnleitner stressed that its crucial first to solve the crisis and agree on the EU budget for 2014-2020 before making a final decision on the future CAP. We have to know what money we have available. This is at the forefront of everyones minds, he stressed.
April 2012 │ 5 Christian Jochum, Chairman of Copa-Cogeca Working Party on Promotion Policy broadly welcomed new EU Commission plans on future EU promotion policy of agricultural products, saying they include many of our demands, especially the urgent need for simplification of administrative procedures. But he highlighted the need for a good budget to fund an ambitious EU promotion policy. position is to make it possible to promote the origin of a product when it is not covered by EU legislation on quality policy and when it is a secondary message and Mr Jochum welcomed the fact that this has been included in the plans. Mr Jochum was also pleased to see that our demands on policy for branding and the need for it to be relaxed slightly to enable pragmatic solutions to be found in co-financed EU programmes are also included in plans. But Mr Jochum insisted that there must be a big boost in EU funds allocated to this policy as many of the problems in the past have been to a lack of funds. EU Agriculture Ministers have also adopted EU Council conclusions on the future of EU agriculture promotion policy, stressing that the EU needs a more ambitious promotion policy which Copa-Cogeca welcomes. Copa-Cogeca organised a Seminar “The Reform of European Promotion Policy for Agricultural Products: Moving towards a new EU promotion Policy for Agricultural Products” with the support of the EU food industry organisations FoodDrink Europe and Celcaa, in Brussels in March to debate the reform. It gathered together over 100 stakeholders, leading politicians and experts to exchange ideas. Participants concluded that an ambitious promotion policy is needed, with a more targeted, strategic approach. Mr Jochum welcomed the debate, stressing it provided a good marketplace to exchange ideas early on in the legislative process. Chairman of Copa-Cogeca working party on promotion policy Mr Jochum Broadly welcomes new EU commission plans on future promotion policy and highlights need for good budget The move came as the Commission released its Communication, with legislative proposals expected at the end of the year. The Communication includes measures to simply administrative procedures – a key demand of Copa-Cogeca - as a big problem with the policy up to now has been down to the very complicated administrative procedures which has reduced the uptake of it. Although Mr Jochum welcomed the move, he insisted that we will now have to see the details of it and if it can work in practice as often things just end up becoming more complicated. Labelling rules also need to be simplified and made understandable for consumers at the same time as meeting EU consumer expectations, he said. In addition, the Communication highlights the need to tap into new export markets, such as India. Copa-Cogeca believes that its important to promote products on new emerging economy markets, such as India, where demand for meat is expected to grow substantially. But Mr Jochum stressed that the priority must still to be to target EU funds at promotion measures destined for the internal market as 85% of EU produce is sold on the domestic market. Copa-Cogeca is calling for promotional measures to be stepped up on both domestic and external markets. He also welcomed the Commission move to increase recognition of EU quality standards. Activities targeted at the internal market that focus on the EU’s unique selling points such as high quality produce are suggested. Another key point of Copa-Cogecas’
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