ECVC held a high-level meeting with the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Hogan
From principles to legislative proposals: is there a way to deal with the contradictions in the communication on the CAP?
On 27th March, European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) met with Commissioner Phil Hogan.
ECVC presented itself to Hogan as the only European organisation that represents small and medium scale
businesses and promotes a peasant agriculture model in Europe.
In response to this, Hogan discussed the need for the new CAP to give priority to young people and smallscale
farmers.
Moreover, Hogan agreed that the aid needs to be limited, reduced and redistributed. There also need to be common goals both within and outside of the Member States.
At the same time, the Commissioner highlighted the valuable work of the European Court of Auditors to tackle the way in which the last CAP reform did not meet environmental objectives. For precisely this reason, there
needs to be a new CAP model.
Hogan agreed with ECVC that there should not be any joint financing from pilar 1 and as a result he has confirmed that there will not be any.
ECVC explained its concern about the strategic plans and the possibility that the Member States would use them for competition. Hogan confirmed that the European Commission would clearly define these objectives
and approve the strategic plans.
The Commissioner drew two red lines in the free trade negotiations. These are that there should be indications of the product’s origin and health regulations to preserve authentic food.
Equally, Hogan highlighted how important the proposals on the functioning of the food chain will be. He will present these proposals in April. They will include the banning of abusive commercial practices.
However, there are still significant discrepancies on key matters, such as the need to publicly regulate the market and production, end the negotiation of new free trade deals and the revision of existing ones in order for it to be truly possible to create a sustainable production model, ensure proper incomes for farmers and healthy food which is accessible to all citizens. ECVC hopes that these positive aims will turn into concrete legislative measures that will favour small and medium scale farmers and a more sustainable form of farming.
CONTACTS:
Jose Miguel Pacheco Goncalves (Coordinating Committee ECVC): +35 19 6872 1995 – PT, ES
Andoni Garcia (Coordinating Committee ECVC) +34 63 645 1569 ES -EZ
Geneviève Savigny (Confédération paysanne) : +33 62 555 1687 – FR, EN, ES
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