Coldiretti Forum

"The new EU Commission now changes the agricultural policy".

Agricultural companies denounce the excessive dispersion of resources. Prandini: 'We need courage, the US is pressing us'. Lollobrigida: 'Too many cuts'.

29 November 2024

ETTORE PRANDINI PRESIDENTE COLDIRETTI RAFFAELE BORRIELLO MASAF FORUM INTERNAZIONALE DELL'AGRICOLTURA E DELL'ALIMENTAZIONE

4' min read

A clear turnaround is needed on the reform of the EU agricultural policy. A real change of pace from a situation that, as EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in her letter of assignment to the new Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, "has been marked by too many hyper-environmentalist choices". A decisive change of course from a season in which the farmer was seen as part of the environmental problem and not as an ally on the road to a solution.

This is the main challenge for Italian and European agriculture in the aftermath of the vote on the new EU Commission that emerged yesterday in Rome during the Coldiretti Agriculture and Food Forum.

Guidelines for the CAP reform

The new EU executive will take office on 1 December next. From that moment on, the 90 days will start within which the new head of the agri-food sector ('food and farming', we read in the letter of appointment) will have to prepare the guidelines of his commitment, which will have as its main pillar precisely the reform of the last, much contested, CAP.

I FONDI PAC PER L’ITALIA

And central will be precisely the guidelines and contents from which the debate and later the negotiations will have to start. Also because on the resources front the premises are anything but rosy. The starting point will be the current budget of 384 billion allocated for the whole of Europe and for the entire seven-year programming period. A budget that will also have to be reduced by about 25 billion in integration that the previous CAP obtained in the post-pandemic period on the basis of the Repower Eu plan.

Prandini (Coldiretti): i fondi per agricoltura non più sufficienti

"We need more courage," said the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, "The United States has allocated USD 1,400 billion to US agriculture over ten years. One way forward could be to set up a European fund additional to the CAP and dedicated to innovation in agriculture. Another proposal of ours is to concentrate aid on real farmers, whereas today EU funds are also received by many 'hobbyists' who are not professional farmers. In Italy there are 1.6 million applications for CAP aid every year and our feeling is that those who really work the fields by profession are far fewer. We estimate that at least 30 per cent of direct aid (around 1.5 billion per year) goes to hobbyists. Therefore, there is in our view about EUR 600 million per year to be recovered from real agricultural production'.

Benefits for non-professional farmers

Non-professional farmers are not just an Italian phenomenon and a reflection on them and their access to the benefits of the CAP should also be carried out in Europe, given that, according to Coldiretti, hobby farmers in Europe number 1.2 million out of a total of 9 million.

Also demanding a change of pace from the European Commission was the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida. "In recent days," he recalled, "we have signed a pact on fishing with the French and the Spanish, asking Brussels to stop the continuous reduction of the European fleet. In recent years it has been reduced by 28% and we do not know whether these cuts have had a positive effect on fish stocks. We have asked the experts to make new fleet reductions conditional on scientific data. The answer? They asked us for a new 38% cut in fishing vessels in the coming years. I am not against bureaucracy, but against bureaucracy that is self-referential and distant from the business world'.

"One of the problems of the previous CAP reform," commented the president of Filiera Italia, Paolo De Castro, "was that it was a reform played in defence. Trying to defend itself against the environmentalist offensive. The result has been a bureaucratic monster that has pushed many farmers (in Italy alone, last year, about 50,000, ed.) to renounce European subsidies in order not to have to submit to rules that are often unenforceable. We are confident that the new Commissioner Hansen and, above all, the new Executive Vice-President, Raffaele Fitto, who will also coordinate agriculture and fisheries, will succeed in reversing this trend'.

Sector exposed to Trump's tariffs

"The whole issue of agricultural policy dominated by EU bureaucracy," commented former Prime Minister Romano Prodi, "is emblematic of how the European process has remained incomplete. Europe today is like half-baked and half-unbaked bread that few like. Either we make a leap forward or we do not go far. Even remaining only a trade union will bring us few advantages and we will remain exposed to external offensives such as Trump's tariffs'.

Giulio Tremonti, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, is also convinced that a qualitative leap forward not only in the CAP but also in the entire European integration process is imperative. "Europe must evolve," he explained, "also because the threats starting with wars will not end with peace in Ukraine. We are thinking of enlargement eastwards as far as the Baltic republics, but Putin is also thinking of enlargement westwards. And there are only two ways to stand at a set table: with one's name on the place assigned, or with one's name on the menu of someone else's banquet'.

Giorgio dell’OreficeVicecaposervizio
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Luogo: Roma
Lingue parlate: italiano, inglese
Argomenti: agricoltura, agroalimentare, made in Italy, vitinicoltura, olio
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