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Forget the hype, CAP reform has begun
Mariann Fischer Boel Mariann Fischer Boel is the European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.
IT MAY have escaped people's notice, but despite Britain's clamour for reform at the EU summit in Brussels, the Common Agricultural Policy has just been radically reformed.
At the start of this year, the way farmers are supported in the 25-nation EU changed dramatically.
Unfortunately, attitudes towards the CAP have apparently failed to evolve at the same pace.
The popular caricature remains of an outdated policy which rewards farmers for producing crops that no-one wants and which pays no heed to environmental concerns.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In Britain, politicians and the media repeat ad nauseam the old mantra of the need for CAP reform, yet we have only just completed the most far-reaching reform in its history.
In the most extreme cases, the calls in Britain even extend to demands to "scrap the CAP".
This would be a grave error, whatever the circumstances.
But it would be a particularly serious mistake if it were based on a total disregard for the facts.
So far, attempts by EU leaders to agree a new budget for 2007-2013 have ended in failure and Britain is arguing – quite rightly – that the CAP still accounts for more than 40 per cent of the EU budget.
But what Britain has failed to do is explain the truth behind these simplistic and misleading arguments.
Of course the CAP makes up a large part of the EU budget. That is because it is the only policy funded entirely from the EU budget. EU spending replaces national spending.
Most policies are predominantly financed from national treasuries and the reality is that we spend only 0.43 per cent of EU GDP on agriculture. This will decline to about 0.33 per cent by 2013.
That is a small price to pay for a policy which ensures a constant supply of high quality and safe food, maintains economic activity in rural areas throughout the EU, prevents the gradual drift to our overcrowded cities, ensures environmental protection and animal welfare and preserves the landscape beloved of Europeans.
In June 2003, after several months of tough negotiations, an agreement was reached to revolutionise the CAP. The decisions taken then came into effect last January.
The reform was based on the financing deal done at the Brussels summit in October 2002.
The decision to freeze the budget for market support and direct aid to farmers until 2013 was taken unanimously. Any country could have vetoed the agreement. None did.
So when people call for immediate "CAP reform" and a cut in agricultural spending, we are not talking about reopening a decades-old deal. We are talking about ripping up a text, agreed by all, on which the ink is hardly dry.
This is totally unacceptable. It would mean taking the axe to our reforms before they have even had time to take root.
The CAP we have in place now will already mean cuts in payments of about 10 per cent to all but the smallest farmers in the "old" 15 EU member countries by 2013.
If we are forced to include the cost of supporting farmers in Bulgaria and Romania within the present budget, once these countries join the EU, there will be further cuts of almost 10 per cent.
I also read regular criticisms of how rich landowners get huge payments from the CAP.
In 2002, the European Commission's initial reform proposals included a limit of 300,000 euros for each individual farmer. This idea was killed by ministers from the countries with the biggest farms – including the same UK Government that has recently launched its determined campaign to cut "excessive" CAP spending.
So why do I believe the new CAP is such good news and worthy of protection? The 1970s and 1980s were decades of heavy price support and overproduction.
By contrast, the noughties are the era of direct payments to farmers completely de-linked from what they produce.
The new CAP also increases the importance of rural development policy, which broadens support for the entire rural economy, and encourages innovation and diversification both within agriculture and outside.
Instead of farming for subsidies, farmers can now look around for the best market opportunities and produce what consumers actually want.
To get their payments, they must fulfil exacting environmental, animal-welfare and land-management standards.
Besides the benefits this brings internally, the new CAP will help the EU to meet its firm pledge to phase out all export subsidies, which have for so long angered developing countries and non-governmental organisations alike.
It also makes the CAP much more trade-friendly, as our new farm payments are non-trade-distorting.
Crucially, the CAP reform already includes a mid-term assessment. Sometime in 2008 or 2009, I have to study the effects of the reform and suggest any adjustments which I deem necessary. And, after 2013, all options are open.
That is why I have trouble comprehending some of the rhetoric being used on the subject.
Regrettably, there are still those who are too willing to resort to tired old clichs about the CAP as an economic dinosaur.
But the CAP has evolved and will continue to do so. I look forward to the time when perceptions of it have also evolved and give us the credit we deserve.
When such outdated attitudes persist, I ask myself: is it really the CAP that is the dinosaur?
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