EU wants farmers to justify subsidies by going green

The European Commission on Thursday adopted plans that would force farmers to do more to protect the environment in order to justify public subsidies, despite farm unions warning that could threaten their economic viability. In a policy paper on reforming the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) from 2013, the EU’s executive said direct subsidies to farmers — currently worth about 40 billion euros a year — should in future be partly linked to meeting environmental goals. “European agriculture needs to be not only economically competitive, but also environmentally competitive,” EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said in this video statement. But EU farmers’ union Copa-Cogeca said the Commission’s focus on “greening” the CAP risked undermining EU food production by increasing farmers’ costs. “The only concrete proposal in the paper is to add more costly (environmental) burdens onto EU farmers,” said Copa President Padraig Walshe. “Increasing costs lowers incomes and will have a devastating effect on production,” he told a news conference in Brussels. The negative reaction from farm unions, whose views carry considerable weight in many national agriculture ministries, could signal difficulties for the Commission when it presents its vision for the reform to EU farm ministers on November 29. But initial reaction from the European Parliament — which will have an equal say in the reform with EU governments — was more positive. www.euractiv.com