Anger at bid to block greening change

The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee has angered the European Commission by seeking to block a key change to the greening regulation. The Commission had secured member state approval for a series of mid-term changes to the Cap, which included a ban on the use of pesticides on environmental focus areas (EFA).

The Agriculture Committee says this goes beyond an adjustment of the regulation and is more akin to a fundamental reform of the policy.

Their opposition to the EFA plan will delay all changes to the CAP until this is resolved. This has angered green groups, who see it as an attempt to water down greening.

Meanwhile some MEPs are continuing to oppose the relicensing of glyphosate. The Commission has proposed a 10-year extension from the end of the year, but socialist MEPs seek to block this on grounds that there is sufficient concern to justify a further inquiry.

This will be discussed at the European Parliament this week. Draft budget’s small cut in Cap funds The EU draft financial budget for 2018 will see a small reduction in the funds allocated to the Cap.

The total for pillars one and two will be 44.5 billion euros. This is down by just 822 million euro on the 2017 budget, mainly because the 500m euro emergency aid programmes last year was funded out of the 2017 budget.

This effectively means that for both direct payments and rural development it will be a case of business as usual, with the Commission taking considerable comfort from the fact that the improvement in markets will head off pressure for emergency aid schemes.

There will still be a 1.38% cut in direct payments to create an emergency reserve.

The Cap budget is part of the wider EU budget, which is yet to be agreed, and what has been proposed is very much a first draft.

Call for global farming rethink The director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has urged a radical rethink about global farming methods.

Jose Graziano Da Silva told the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee that agriculture needed to change from an industry focused on inputs to one where the focus was on the input of knowledge.

He said ‘business as usual’ was not an option but, despite the pressure to feed a growing world population, his enthusiasm was not for knowledge to drive agricultural efficiency.

Instead, he said the focus must be as much on protecting the environment as producing food, arguing for policies such as more crop diversification, the growth of small holdings and new ways to tackle pests and diseases.

He identified tackling greenhouse gases as a major issue, saying present agriculture was responsible for a third of this problem, although he recognised farming’s role in locking up carbon.

This fits well with the pressure within the Parliament and European Commission for the post 2020 Cap to be greener and less focused on protecting farm incomes.

This gives the UK the opportunity after the election to strike out with a new farm policy based on a productive, globally competitive agricultural industry. However, politics will decide whether that opportunity is seized.