CAP Health Check

Mariann Fisher Boel had to convince Walsh farmers – mostly women – of the legitimacy of the CAP Health Check this Monday (click here to read the speech).

She referred to the fussy topic, market support instruments, as a “safety net” instead of a “price setter”. Once reformed, these instruments will be more suitable for tackling high prices that every European consumer is confronted to at the moment.

She also promised to improve the payment system and to abandon the arable set-aside system and milk quotas, out of date according to her.

But the main goal of her speech was to persuade farmers that the CAP had to be modernised to respond to new global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity.

The rural development policy is entitled to provide farmers support to undertake these challenges. However there is still a “minor” problem: the budget of this policy is already in short supply for covering the current issues!!! So, right now, the extra financial source is still a mystery…