A common agricultural policy to strengthen food security

Last week an ugly page in EU history was written. The European Commission presented its proposals on the Financial Perspective (MFF) and the reform of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), wrong in both method and content.

As for the method, perhaps never before has the Commission deliberately ignored the European Parliament, in which the directly elected representatives of the European citizens sit. It totally ignored the vote against the Single Fund cast by a large majority of MEPs in the Strasbourg plenary! Nevertheless, the Single Fund has become the mainstay of Von der Leyen's proposal! In the same college, Commissioner Hansen, who was also a long-time MEP, wanted to present his reform proposal without even waiting for the indications that the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament was about to vote. These are veritable slaps in the face, those given to the EU Parliament in this first part of the Von der Leyen legislature, which is in fact systematically marginalised in the decision-making process: thus betraying the idea endorsed by the Lisbon Treaty of placing the European Parliament at the centre of the Union's democratic life. It was supposed to be one of the levers to bring citizens and European institutions closer together; instead, we are, unfortunately, going down the opposite road, certainly the best one to deepen the furrow between society and the palaces in Brussels.

If we turn to the content, the bitterness, if possible, increases. The idea of a single fund marks the end of European policies as we have known them to date and opens a veritable highway to the (re)nationalisation of financial resources and intervention choices. Particularly affected is the common agricultural policy, which was the cement for the construction of Europe and the only real policy completely or almost completely delegated to Brussels. From the point of view of resources, a cut of 24% is being made compared to the current budget, despite the fact that, and this makes Von der Leyen's choice truly incomprehensible, the resources for the next programming period have risen from 1.2 to about 2 trillion euro. Of course, it will be said that Member States can take from the single fund to replenish the budget dedicated to the CAP, but the fact of the matter is that the minimum resources guaranteed to farmers have decreased and the doubt of a blanket too short for everything exists.

Behind the word flexibility, which justifies this change in the architecture of European spending, unfortunately hides the spectre of a renunciation of the concept of European policies. A space of renationalisation that is becoming too wide and that primarily affects agricultural and agri-food systems, which see only part of their resources guaranteed while the rest would compete with the needs of other parts of the economy and society. The intervention of Member States with additional resources is, in fact, left to their exclusive will, as the regulation makes clear. Therefore, an important part of the budget that in this programming period is addressed to agricultural systems and rural development, which are at the basis of the European agri-food system, the leading sector of the economy both in terms of production and export volume, could be lost.

All this, by the way, is happening at an unprecedented time in history, full of tensions and concerns, where the rules of the global game are being rewritten. Where the sector will be among the most affected by the tariffs that the Trump administration is preparing to impose on us! At a time when strategic dependencies, and among them food, are once again a priority even in developed countries, a strong and clear agricultural policy is needed to strengthen food security, but also to ensure that the rules are the same for all and that food is not just a means of livelihood but an essential part of the quality of life of European citizens.