The European Commission unveiled the new blueprint for the agricultural sector that despite gobbling up a third of the EU budget in subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has long resented Brussels' liberal approach to trade.
Months of protests last year saw farmers so furious at regulatory burdens, squeezed revenues and what they see as unfair competition from less-regulated overseas rivals, that they hurled eggs, sprayed manure and blockaded the Belgian capital's streets.
The "Vision for Agriculture and Food", as the review is titled, is "a strong response to this call for help", the European Commission's Vice-President for Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, said at a press conference, referring to the protests.
To ensure that the agricultural sector is not "put at a competitive disadvantage", the Commission will pursue "a stronger alignment of production standards applied to imported products", the plan reads. In particular, Brussels will see to it that "the most hazardous pesticides banned in the EU for health and environmental reasons" are not allowed back in "through imported products".
While waiting for the Commission's legal proposals to carry out the crackdown on agricultural imports, Brussels is studying how to better redistribute the direct subsidy payments from CAP to towards the farmers who "need them most".
The focus is to shift towards incentives rather than conditions in CAP payments. In addition, the money should be geared more towards farmers who are actively involved in food production and the preservation of the environment.
According to the Commission, the production of agricultural goods and products, which are essential for the EU's strategic autonomy and resilience, should be prioritised.
EU officials are also working on a second simplification package of the current CAP to further reduce the last remaining bureaucratic burdens on small farms after last year's streamlining following the farmers' protests.
Flat-rate payments and the suspension of the performance review, i.e. an annual control system introduced with the current CAP to check whether payments are in line with national spending plans, are some of the measures that the Commission will put in place.
Chorus of criticism and praise
Herbert Dorfmann, a member of the European Parliament for the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), welcomed the plans from the European Commission.
"For us it is clear: we do not want any new burdens, but flexibility and solid income for farmers through a strong Common Agricultural Policy," the EPP spokesman on agriculture and rural development said in a press release.
Italian Agricultural Minister Francesco Lollobrigida also welcomed the roadmap as a "clear and radical" change from the Commission in a statement.
From the enhancement of local production, to the recognition of the central role of farmers: the issues addressed in recent years finally find a place in the new plans of the Commission, Lollobrigida said.
The Italian minister was also pleased with the emphasis on food sovereignty, how a country chooses and produces its food, in the EU plan for agriculture.
It is the first time that the EU not only "recognises the contribution of agricultural production to the economy, but also to the sustainability of rural areas and their connection with the cultural and natural heritage of each place", said Greek Agricultural Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras.
Tsiaras stressed the importance of "strengthening of policies aimed at reducing production costs and regulation for the use of pesticides in the production of imported products, as well as addressing unfair practices" to protect European farmers.
The reception however was not universally positive, especially among environmental groups. While the pan-European farmers' group Copa-Cogeca who says it wants to ensure EU agriculture is sustainable, innovative and competitive, said the plans were "ambitious", environmental groups complained it was light on green commitments, promising instead deregulation as part of a broader drive to revamp Europe's economic competitiveness, which critics say risks undermining the fight against climate change.
The new plans "do little to curtail the environmental, climate and socioeconomic threats facing most farmers", according to Greenpeace.
The European Environment Bureau (EEB), an umbrella group of activists, also described the final text as "timid" compared to an earlier version that had been circulated.
Tomas Prouza from the Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism said the plans did not produce the necessary reforms for the agricultural sector. The Commission's vision for agriculture was a missed opportunity to push through long-delayed changes that would have strengthened the sector's resilience, Prouza expressed in a press release.
"Instead of a truly reformist material, there is a document on the table that may calm some striking farmers, but does nothing to solve the problems that affect citizens," Prouza said.
The material does not address agricultural issues in their entirety, from the processing of agricultural production to food production, sales and consumption, Prouza added.
In his view, there is also a lack of greater emphasis on strengthening the single European market. "All we see in the material is a further increase in barriers," he added.
Vision origins
The EU has been planning the changes to agricultural policy in response to the farmers' protest for a long time. In their most recent meeting, EU agricultural ministers in January set out their expectations of the commission - namely a focus on unfair trading practices and the simplification of CAP regulations.
Slovak Agriculture Minister Richard Takáč said at the time he had been pushing the bloc to address unfair trading practices since last year and had the support of multiple EU member states.
Takáč added that multinational companies often put undue pressure on smaller producers, and they were then forced to sell their products below their production price, an issue of major importance for farmers in the EU. "We must support the buyer-supplier relationship from the perspective of the weaker party. And these are farmers, local food producers, smaller producers, not multinational companies, he said.
Agriculture gets 30 percent of the EU budget.
Currently, agricultural businesses in the EU receive around 30 percent of the EU budget.
This compares with around 9 million people employed in the sector in 2020 according to the EU stats agency, Eurostat.
This makes agricultural subsidies one of the largest expenditures, amounting to 387 billion Euro in the long-term EU budget from 2021 to 2027. CAP subsidies will be negotiated as part of the next EU budget from 2028 to 2034.
A few large companies have also benefited disproportionately from the funds.
According to EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen, a "certain balance" must be established. Among other things, there needs to be a debate on the extent to which the size of a farm plays a role.
"You can't compare a farm with five hectares with a farm with 5,000 hectares," he said, speaking at the policy review. He did not announce any specific targets or concrete changes for the time being.
Hansen also wants to do more for young farmers. "Normally, the young farmer is not the one who has 5,000 hectares," said Hansen. There should be more support, he said, especially in the first few years, "because he or she is facing major challenges anyway".
(The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, AMNA, ANSA, CTK, dpa, TASR).
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