CAP Health Check

 clip made by the EU which came with the Commission’s proposals. It is not to do propaganda but I think it’s quite well made!

The catchword of the CAP health check is LIBERALISM; less interventionism, more farmers’ initiatives. It concretely means (according to the EU):

abolishing set-aside rules requiring arable farmers to leave 10% of land fallow

phasing out milk quotas by one percent per year from 2009-13

simplifying the link between subsidies and environmental, animal welfare and food quality standards

more flexible support for sectors with special problems

moving some direct aid into rural development, to support renewable energy, water management and biodiversity and measures to address climate change

ending market intervention in certain areas so farmers can respond more quickly to market trends

So for the UK, the proposals seem to be not too bad, except from cutting down hand-outs (about 100,000€/year at the moment) for large farms (most of the farms in the UK are large-scale as the Queen knows!!).

But for French farmers it could be a “disaster” for their wallet as direct aids would not depend only on production anymore and part of the budget for direct aids would move to funds for rural development  ! It’ll be very interesting to follow the reform under the French presidency, from july to december,…we know already that French farmers will be backed by Barnier (see previous post)!!!!