THE CPMR S CAP AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT INTERCOM SUMMARY OVERVIEW OF PROCEEDINGS WORKING GROUP JANUARY 2010 MEETING OF 10 DECEMBER 2009 IN BRUSSELS

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1 CRPMPRV A0 CONFERENCE DES REGIONS PERIPHERIQUES MARITIMES D EUROPE CONFERENCE OF PERIPHERAL MARITIME REGIONS OF EUROPE 6, rue Saint-Martin RENNES - F Tel. : + 33 (0) Fax : + 33 (0) e.mail : secretariat@crpm.org web : JANUARY 2010 THE CPMR S CAP AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT INTERCOM WORKING GROUP SUMMARY OVERVIEW OF PROCEEDINGS MEETING OF 10 DECEMBER 2009 IN BRUSSELS List of participants: see appendix This summary overview of proceedings does not give the details of presentations. When available, these can be consulted on the CPMR s website, at: Just as the debates on the future of the CAP after 2013 are about to begin, this first meeting of the CPMR Working Group, which is co-chaired by the regions of Andalucia and Pays de la Loire, has three objectives: to draw up an inventory of the positions, activities, timetables of the various European institutions and organisations; to find out the regions points of view; to draw some operational conclusions for the CPMR s work in POSITIONS, WORK UNDERWAY AND TIMETABLES For the European Commission (See also Pierre Bascou s presentation) The European Commission will only publish its Communication on the future of the CAP at the end of This should notably propose changes to the direct payment system. The following issues lie at the heart of the current debates: should two pillars be maintained? what is the best way of dealing with the volatility of prices in the markets? what role should the CAP play in food security? should future insurance schemes seek to protect revenue or income? should direct payments be focused on income support or payment for services provided (public goods, environmental goods, etc.)? should there be any redistribution (transfers) of direct payments between sectors and countries? the future budget of the CAP: towards a substantial reduction? regarding rural development, the key words are technological innovation, efforts to tackle climate change, and green growth; Development Intercom Working Group p. 1

2 the Lisbon Treaty adjusts the political scales, as the CAP now comes under the field of codecision: what effect will this have, in particular regarding the timetables for decisionmaking? For COPA-COGECA Arnaud Petit emphasised the following elements of background information: the downward trend in prices and the decrease in farm incomes since 2000; the EU is a net importer of farm products, and must therefore be concerned about food security direct payments should contribute to this; EU management instruments are a vital means of coping with market volatility; agriculture offers a potential solution when it comes to environmental challenges. In this context: - COPA-COGECA is pushing for improvements in agricultural productivity through support for investment (i.e., to produce more in a given surface area, but also to produce more with fewer resources). In this context, subsidies under the First Pillar benefit all farmers, in contrast to those granted under the Second Pillar, in which aid depends upon the member states. - To safeguard economic activity in disadvantaged areas, measures to compensate for disadvantages under the Second Pillar could be combined with Article 68 of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and should be focused on a limited number of European priorities such as the climate, water and biofuel production, as emphasised already in the Health Check. - The CAP should help producers to organise themselves. - The issue of redistributing payments between countries should be tackled, to ensure greater fairness for the ten new member states. However, a unitary policy is still essential. This is the lesson to be learnt from the milk crisis, which was settled by resorting much more to state subsidies (over 2 billion) than to the EU budget (only 650 million). - Farmers have a poor opinion of modulation, as they feel that support is going to other sectors than farming. However, can it be used for redistributing subsidies between farmers? For the Spanish Presidency of the EU during the first half of 2010 Having outlined the contributions of the previous EU presidencies, Mr Bardon firstly said that Spain considers that the current European instruments for managing the markets are still useful, as the milk crisis demonstrated, although they perhaps need to be updated. The Spanish positions on the future of the CAP will be made known in May These will take the form of an overview of past debates, to enable the Commission to make progress in its proposals by taking into account of areas of agreement already established at Council level. For the European Parliament Mr Olivares Martinez explained the European Parliament s new status and new responsibilities since the Lisbon Treaty came into force, regarding the budget, financial programming, its relationship with the Council, the simplified revision procedure, etc. The Agriculture Committee is planning to publish an own-initiative report in June 2010, which will be preceded by a public hearing on 17 March. A further own-initiative report and public hearings are planned after publication of the European Commission s Communication. The stakeholder consultation will be organised in The European Parliament will also examine the impact that sectoral policies including the CAP have on territorial cohesion, by seeking to achieve greater overall coherence. Development Intercom Working Group p. 2

3 For Michel Jacquot, external expert Mr Jacquot set the discussion within the global context: the external problem of the Doha Cycle at the World Trade Organisation, which serves as a reminder that national farm support policies exist everywhere. He said that there is no moral justification for 40 billion of direct EU subsidies. The regions have a major role to play in re-establishing their legitimacy by linking them again with specific functions: support for farmers in disadvantaged areas, high-quality products and products with designated origin, the environment, etc. It is not necessary to maintain two pillars in the CAP. A coherent European agricultural policy is required, with simple and effective management instruments and a support scheme to pay for specific tasks. REGIONAL OPINIONS For Pays de la Loire, Brittany and Poitou-Charentes, the major issues outlined by Dominique Tremblay were as follows: food safety and traceability: world agricultural trade must operate on the basis of identical food safety rules, which is not presently the case, and the need to ensure a balance in global food production; the CAP must promote and encourage diversity in modes of production; agriculture has a socio-economic development role; the added value created by public funds is a key feature of the CAP s success, which needs to be improved through a greater effort in research and innovation; the regionalisation of subsidies must be accompanied by a fairer and more relevant system for allocating payments. The historical notion of subsidies is out of date. For Tuscany (for additional information, see Roberto Pagni s presentation): The First Pillar needs to be reformed: historical payments are no longer politically acceptable and must be phased out; they must be coupled with the production of public goods and be higher in peripheral and mountainous areas; there is a need for flexible support to cope with market risks; on the whole there should be fewer instruments, and they should be more clearly defined; Tuscany is in favour of a single regional programme for agriculture and rural development, which would provide payments and support investment. For Andalusia, (for additional information, see Pilar San Miguel s presentation): Andalusia has drawn up some proposals on the following aspects of the future of the CAP: renewal of objectives, management of markets, the single payment system, rural development programmes and other instruments. This region is in favour of having a CAP based on the provision of services of public interest. With regard to single payments, the system should be changed gradually, with a long period of transition based on the following principles: From a budgetary point of view, maintenance of the link with current distribution, while shifting towards payment for services; The corrective criteria of national budgets must be validated by technical studies. The territorial breakdown of direct payments should above all include forests that are run on an organic farming basis, in Natura 2000 areas. Development Intercom Working Group p. 3

4 For Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (for additional information, see Jorg Turmer s presentation): There should be no partial or total renationalisation of the CAP. From being a sectoral policy, it should become an integrated, territorial rural policy and two pillars should be maintained. In the long-term, there should be a move towards standardisation of direct payments in Europe on a regional and national basis, although these must be approved by society. Rural development needs more funding, but this should not come from modulation. After 2013, the support should also be given to boost the competitiveness of farm businesses. Demographic change should also be perceived as a new challenge of the CAP. OPERATIONAL CONCLUSIONS The following points summarise the speeches of Maria Isabel Salinas Garcia and Dominique Tremblay, Co-Chairs of the Working Group, and of Orazio Cellini, Tuscany Region, and Patrick Anvroin, CPMR: 1- The regions must play a very proactive role in the debates preceding the legislative and budgetary proposals on CAP reform. 2- To draw up some credible proposals, the regions must do some technical work on models and simulations. 3- To ensure their opinion is heard, they must also develop alliances and partnerships. The CPMR General Secretariat is thus requested to continue developing closer links, as it did in 2009, with other interregional networks and organisations working on farming issues at European level. A second meeting of the General Secretaries is due to be held in early 2010 to identify priorities and establish a timetable. 4- The two pilot regions and the CPMR have to plan and organise a seminar on the CAP and the regions during the first half of 2010 and the Spanish Presidency of the EU. Andalusia offered to host this event in Almeria in the spring, on a date to be proposed soon, which will take account of the timetable of the Spanish Presidency and that of the CPMR. It will be the second event of this kind, following the seminar held in Pays de la Loire in October 2008, which was a great success and established the regions and the CPMR as key stakeholders in the forthcoming reforms. It was agreed that all European regions should be invited to Almeria, and not just CPMR member regions. 5- It would be appropriate to produce a report in closer cooperation with the Committee of the Regions (CoR), in order to better serve the interests of the regions and strengthen the CoR s involvement in the CAP. 6- The CPMR General Secretariat was given a mandate to coordinate, along with Andalusia, Pays de la Loire and Tuscany, the drafting of a policy paper on the future of the CAP. This will be presented to the CPMR Political Bureau in Asturias on 15/16 February. Once approved, further to possible amendments by the Political Bureau, the paper will serve as the basis for the Almeria seminar and for discussions initiated by the CPMR in early 2010 with the new European Parliament and new European Commission. In producing this paper, the drafting group will base itself on: - the principles supported by the CPMR in its response to the Health Check; - the technical paper circulated at the CPMR General Assembly in Gothenburg; - the discussions of 10 December Development Intercom Working Group p. 4

5 MEETING OF THE CPMR S CAP AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT INTERCOM WORKING GROUP 10 DECEMBER 2009 Espace Interrégional Européen Bretagne - Pays de la Loire - Poitou-Charentes LIST OF PARTICIPANTS REGIONS Açores Joao REIS, Director Serviços Regimes Apoio, Regiao Autonoma dos Açores Andalucia Maria Isabel SALINAS GARCIA, Secrétaire générale du milieu rural et de la production écologique d Andalousie Nicolas CUESTA SANTIAGO, Delegado de la Junta de Andalusia en Bruselas Pilar SAN MIGUEL Chef du Service en charge du Suivi de la PAC, Région Andalousie Rosa CRESPO ANGUITA, Asesora Técnica de la Delegación de Andalucía en Bruselas, Delegación de Andalucía Bretagne - Pays de la Loire Poitou Charentes Dominique TREMBLAY, Vice-président de la Commission de l action économique, en charge de l agriculture à la Région Pays de la Loire Laurianne SCHLAEPPI, Directrice, Espace Interrégional Européen Bretagne Pays de la Loire Poitou- Charentes Agnès TRARIEUX, Chargée de mission, Espace Interrégional Européen Bretagne Pays de la Loire Poitou-Charentes Audrey CHANU, Chargée de mission, Espace Interrégional Européen Bretagne Pays de la Loire Poitou-Charentes Highland Isobel MCCALLUM, Councillor, Highland Council Murcia Javier GARCIA DOMINGUEZ, Agriculture and Fisheries Policy Advisor, Región de Murcia Picardie Elodie RICHARD, Chargée de mission, Représentation de la Picardie auprès de l UE Development Intercom Working Group p. 5

6 Toscane Orazio CELLINI, Région Toscane Paolo GIANNARELLI Consigliere del Presidente per le Politiche europee, Regione Toscana Roberto PAGNI Responsable de l Agriculture soutenable de la Région Toscane Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Jörg TURMER Attaché de la Représentation permanente de Mecklenburg-Vorpommern en charge de l agriculture Ostrobothnia Henrik INGO, Director ProAgria Ostrobothnia, Ostrobothnia, South West UK Eleni MARIANOU, Director, South West UK Brussels Office STATES Antonio BARDON, Conseiller en charge de l Agriculture au sein de la Représentation Permanente de l Espagne auprès de l UE Laura ENFEDAQUE DIAZ, Apoyo a la Consejería de Agricultura, Representación Permanente de España ante la UE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS Pierre BASCOU Chef d Unité Analyse économique de l agriculture, DG Agri, CE Ismael OLIVARES MARTINEZ, Directeur des politiques structurelles et de cohésion, DG - Politiques internes de l'union, Parlement européen Albert MASSOT MARTI, Administrateur d'études parlementaires, secteur agriculture, DG - Politiques internes de l'union, Parlement européen Gerhard KALB, Chef d Unité, DG - Politiques internes de l'union, Parlement européen EXPERTS Annemiek CANJELS, Senior Advisor EU Public Affairs, Peri Urban Regions PLatform Europe - PURPLE Michel JACQUOT, expert, ancien Directeur du FEOGA Arnaud PETIT Directeur, COPA COGECA CPMR Patrick ANVROIN, Directeur à la CRPM Carol THOMAS, Déléguée permanente, CRPM Development Intercom Working Group p. 6