ARC letter to EU institutions

On 17 April 2013, with trilogue negotiations underway, ARC2020 sent a letter to the European institutions working on the CAP reform. Specifically, the European Parliament rapporteurs, Chairman of the Agricultural Commitee – Paolo De Castro, President of the Council of Agicultural Ministers – Simon Coveney, and EU Commissioner for Agriculture – Dacian Cioloss. The letter outlines a number of points that they asked negotiators to support in this final stage of finalizing the policy.

You can find the full list of demands in the PDF version of the letter

You can find the main letter below:

Dear MEPs,

Dear President,

Following the vote of the European Parliament on 13th March for negotiation mandates, and the agreement on 19 March by the Council of Agriculture Ministers on a general approach the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), trilogue negotiations are beginning, and will run until the end of June to reach an agreement under the Irish Presidency.

These inter-institutional negotiations are crucial for the future of the CAP and for its

legitimacy in the eyes of European citizens, who are increasingly attentive to the use of public money; they want every euro spent by the EU to be a useful and fair euro towards public goods, social, economic and environmental services.

ARC 2020 considers that public spending within the CAP is justified only if it contributes to the development of truly agro-ecological farming and food systems, which are not currently guaranteed by the market alone. This means redirecting spending towards a genuine greening of agricultural systems including the need to give more attention to healthy soil starting with crop rotation and taking account of agricultural employment.

We are afraid that the current negotiations can no longer achieve this goal. However,

substantial differences can still be made to fulfill the demands of EU citizens.

The ARC2020 platform, which brings together EU farming, international development, rural development, local food system and consumer organisations as well as environmental and nature conservation NGOs, has compiled a list of essential points that are still not decided in this trilogue. ARC 2020 asks you to actively support the attached positions.

ARC2020 still believes that the CAP reform trilogues are an opportunity not to be missed to achieve a meaningful reform. We remain at your disposal for any information or clarification.

Yours sincerely

ARC2020