Press release

(Brussels, 22/11/2013) BEGINS The European Parliament held its final vote on Wednesday 20th November on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In voting as it did, Parliament has it intensified the failure to deliver what was supposed to be a fairer, simpler and greener agriculture policy for Europe. ”Business as usual has prevailed at 90%” said Benedikt Haerlin of  NGO platform ARC2020.EU and Meine Landwirtschaft.  “Unfortunately the role of the European Parliament had been to substantially  cut back on the initial progress towards sustainability proposed by the European Commission. From 2014 to 2020 we will see at least as many farms being closed down within the European Union, organic farming will suffer financially, biodiversity will suffer even more and the role of the European Union in the world will continue to be a resource-sucker at the expense of the global poor and the environment.” Importantly, all amendments, some of which could have improved the proposals, were dropped and not voted on. This democratically questionable move occurred due to a change in the voting order of the overall EU budget […]

(Brussels, 02/10/13) BEGINS On Monday the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee (COMAGRI) voted on the remaining issues on CAP reform. This follows the substantive agreement in June in Ireland and the final trilogue between Parliament, Council and Commission last week, where the Council strong-armed the Parliament into ceding its position, aided by the Commission. The committee vote still needs to be confirmed by Parliament as a whole in a plenary vote at the November session. “The co-decision procedure on CAP reform has been a long, epic process, full of delays and brinkmanship. In the end however, it also represents, unfortunately, a missed opportunity to really, radically reform the CAP. The momentum now turns to member states” Samuel Feret, ARC2020’s coordinator said. Substantial reform has been bypassed in favour of business as usual, questioning the whole notion of co-decision making and trilogue. The Council, together with anti-reform COMAGRI members opposed capping payments to even the wealthiest, while watering down greening with exemptions and loopholes and maintaining polluting and export dumping practices. Specifically The COMAGRI vote dealt with outstanding issues on DP (Direct Payments), CMO (Common Organisation of Markets), RD (Rural Development) and HZR (Horizontal Regulations). […]