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Dear All,
Greetings from Brussels. In this newsletter we are targeting interested stakeholders and supporters of the ARC Communication. From now on, we intend to come back to you with updated information every few weeks.
We are now a strong group of more than 120 organizations who signed the ARC Communication and this number is constantly increasing. Thanks to the support of many volunteers within our network, the ARC Communication and its summary have been translated into 8 languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Czech and Hungarian; we have also translated the summary of the Communication into Greek. They are all available for download here.
Additionally, we have a new, more user-friendly structure for our website. We envisage the ARC website becoming a valuable source of information on the CAP reform process and on innovative trends in farming, rural development, nutrition, fair trade and many more. This is why we invite you to inform us about relevant news, campaigns, initiatives, blogs, etc. in your country, region and at local level.
You will find more news on the CAP reform and the latest ARC activities below.
The ARC team
Update on the CAP reform process:
- The Council is still far from reaching political agreement, but is building coalitions among Member States. We will follow this development and let you know about the specific position of each country. See our press release following the meeting of the Council of Ministers in Brussels on March 17th.
- At the European Parliament the Committee on Agriculture and RD is examining nearly 1300 amendments which were tabled on the Dess report. Negotiations on possible compromises took place in Strasbourg this week.The votes in committee are scheduled for 2 May and the vote in plenary in the first week of June. The problem staff and MEPs of AGRI Committee will face in finding compromises is not only the sheer number of amendments but the fact that political groups have tabled amendments following different structures, in some cases completely re-writing sections. The challenge is to find a new structure which leads to a coherent message of the Parliament.
- The European Commission seems to be the most creative force for the reform. The joint letter of the three Commissioners, Ciolos on Agriculture, Hedegaard on climate change and Potocnik on environment, underlining the need for greening the CAP was an important sign. In parallel the commissioner for Regional and Cohesion Policy is working on new LEADER/URBAN style sstylestrural-urban programming. Local and sub-regional development programming seems to play an important role in inter-service consultations.
ARC activities this year:
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ARC supported the demonstration ‘We’ve had enough!‘ in Berlin on Saturday January 22nd. A delegation from the ARC joined the campaigners of the Wir haben es satt! demonstration in support of family farms, organic agriculture and healthful and fair foods. You can find more information here.
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On February 2nd ARC was represented in a public hearing at European Economic and Social Committee. Antje Kölling, Policy Coordinator at IFOAM-EU Group, spoke on behalf of the ARC and outlined our view in response to the hearing’s overall theme “The CAP towards 2020: what is lacking in the Commission proposal”. [ read more]
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On March 2nd some thirty experts in agriculture, including organic farmers, farmers’ trade unions, environmental and nature conservation NGOs, experts in public health, civil society foundations, rural development agencies and NGOs, met at Warsaw in the Stefan Batory Foundation building to discuss the future of the CAP. The meeting was organised as a regional gathering under the ARC process and was funded by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. [ read more]
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ARC called for a European Food Monitoring Agency at the ComAgri Public Hearing
ARC presented on January 26th its vision to the European Parliament at the Committee on Agriculture’s Hearing on the future of the CAP. Speaking on behalf of the alliance, Professor Michael Dower offered a creative solution to the crucial problem of securing for farmers a fair return on their production. “Without such a solution”, he said, “European tax-payers will be permanently committed to paying income support for farmers”. [ read more]
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ARC at BioFach 2011
The series of ARC debate continued on February 18th at BioFach in Nuremberg. IFOAM, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements and patron of BioFach, organised the panel debate “CAP Post 2013 State of Negotiations – What stake for the organic sector and how to place organic best in the process?”. [read more]
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Delivering the ARC message
After having already personally handed over the ARC Communication to Dacian Cioloş, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, and to Paolo di Castro, the Chairman of the European Parliament’s AGRI Committee on 18 November 2010, a delegation of ARC met with the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU on March 14th. [ read more]
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Get involved
Step 1 Spread the word about ARC: invite other organizations from your countries to sign the Communication
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Get involved
Step 2 Share information about local initiatives and campaigns: send us a brief description in English plus the link and we will promote them on the ARC website
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