{"id":118702,"date":"2022-11-16T07:13:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T06:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=118702"},"modified":"2022-11-15T08:34:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T07:34:20","slug":"agriculture-commissioner-cap-budget-too-small-to-face-future-crises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/agriculture-commissioner-cap-budget-too-small-to-face-future-crises\/","title":{"rendered":"Agriculture Commissioner: CAP budget \u2018too small\u2019 to face future crises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The EU currently has one of the world\u2019s most extensive farming subsidy programmes, worth \u20ac270 billion, equivalent to one-third of the EU budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u201cIn the long term perspective, it will be impossible to ensure food security with such a small budget,\u201d the Commissioner told EURACTIV. [Alain ROLLAND – European Union 2022]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But, according to Wojciechowski, this is insufficient to face the multitude of crises the sector will face in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200b\u200b\u201dWe need a stronger CAP, which means that we also need more money in the CAP budget,\u201d he told EURACTIV in an interview on the sidelines of a hearing in the European Parliament this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pointing out that, between the COVID pandemic and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the sector has been in an \u2018almost permanent crisis\u2019 over the past few years, the Commissioner warned that this represents a \u201cserious risk\u201d for food security\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the long term perspective, it will be impossible to ensure food security with such a small budget,\u201d he warned, criticising the fact that the current CAP budget, which represents 0.4% of the EU\u2019s GDP, pales in comparison to other policy areas such as military security, where the figure rises to more than 2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is our challenge \u2013 a stronger CAP for the future period after 2027,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crisis fund to be activated next year<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For the Commissioner, the same logic should be extended to the crisis reserve fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fund \u2013 triggered for the first time in April \u2013 can be used to finance exceptional measures to counteract market disruptions affecting production or distribution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this falls short of what is needed to support farmers through tough times, according to the Commissioner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is only \u20ac500 million, which is about only \u20ac3 per hectare of the farmland in the EU,\u201d he explained, stressing that there are \u201cnot enough instruments in the CAP\u201d to cope with a crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, farmers of the future also need to be equipped with \u201cmore instruments for crisis management,\u201d the Commissioner said, adding that the crisis reserve fund \u201cprobably will also be activated in the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep CAP funding focused on farmers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Commissioner also expressed concerns that the current CAP budget \u2013 which is increasingly relied upon to fund the aims of the EU\u2019s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy \u2013 is being stretched too thin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, in July, the EU executive announced that the EU\u2019s farming subsidies programme would be amended to fund its plans to reduce pesticides<\/a>. Most recently, a draft of the EU\u2019s upcoming fertiliser communication also leans heavily on the CAP to bolster the sector against the fertiliser crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Wojciechowski acknowledged that the fertiliser industry is part of the food ecosystem of the EU, he said funding for fertilisers should be found elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe CAP budget should be, first of all, a budget for the farmers,\u201d he said, adding that he is \u201cgenerally against spending money from CAP for other targets [that are] not directly for farmers\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s the farmers [that] should be supported by the CAP budget,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the Commissioner called for \u201cmore synergy\u201d between the CAP and other policies, such as cohesion policy and recovery funds, stressing the policies should be \u2018complementary\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same goes for the future of the rural development fund, which is currently financed under the CAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it should be financed from other funds too, like cohesion and recovery funds,\u201d he said, stressing that CAP funds should be \u201cspent for farmers, to support the farmers\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parliament \u2018balancing force\u2019 for sustainability<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Commissioner also favoured a strong role for the European Parliament in reforming the farming subsidies policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because Parliament was instrumental in balancing out \u201cthe sustainable approach from one side with a focus on productivity from the other side\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Parliament also played a key role in safeguarding the \u2018common\u2019 element of CAP, pointing out that the last reform, which was designed to offer more flexibility to member states, ran the risk of \u201cbecoming more national than common\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we have avoided this risk, and this was the very important role of the Parliament,\u201d he concluded. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU currently has one of the world\u2019s most extensive farming subsidy programmes, worth \u20ac270 billion, equivalent to one-third of the EU budget. But, according to Wojciechowski, this is insufficient to face the multitude of crises the sector will face in the future. \u200b\u200b\u201dWe need a stronger CAP, which means that we also need more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"A stronger budget must bolster the next Common Agricultural Policy to face future crises, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told EURACTIV in an interview, stressing the need to equip farmers with more crisis management tools","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[6630,16766,15247],"supplier":[4514],"class_list":["post-118702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-agriculture","tag-fertilisers","tag-foodindustry","supplier-european-parliament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118702"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=118702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}