Motion for a resolution | Doc. 12050 | 30 September 2009

The European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Signatories: Mr Nigel EVANS, United Kingdom ; Mr Ruhi AÇIKGÖZ, Turkey, EDG ; Mr Alain COUSIN, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Hubert DEITTERT, Germany ; Mr Bill ETHERINGTON, United Kingdom ; Mr Nigel EVANS, United Kingdom ; Ms Francine JOHN-CALAME, Switzerland, SOC ; Ms Christine MARIN, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Bernard MARQUET, Monaco, ALDE ; Mr Pier Marino MULARONI, San Marino, ALDE ; Ms Carina OHLSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Mr Fidias SARIKAS, Cyprus, SOC ; Mr Ladislav SKOPAL, Czech Republic ; Mr Valeriy SUDARENKOV, Russian Federation, SOC ; Mr Mustafa ÜNAL, Turkey, EPP/CD ; Mr Rudi VIS, United Kingdom ; Mr Hansjörg WALTER, Switzerland, ALDE

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) objectives, put in place in 1962, were to increase agricultural productivity, ensure a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, stabilise markets, secure the availability of supplies and provide consumers with food at reasonable prices. The CAP has proved to be an appropriate tool for organising and regulating agricultural markets.

The various reforms subsequently made it possible to include the principles of respect for the environment and rural development, thereby giving farmers entitlement to indirect subsidies. “Guaranteed prices” ensure that they receive a minimum price for their products by offsetting the difference between the market price and the guaranteed price.

However, with the enlargement of the European Union to 27 countries, the CAP is now encountering problems with regard to its functioning and the aim of the reform of 2003 was to solve funding difficulties caused by enlargement. Subsidies no longer depend on production and farmers are now entitled to single farm payments on condition that they comply with European environmental and food safety regulations.

On 20 November 2008 the European Union agriculture ministers, having concluded that there was a huge gap between the content of the CAP and the actual economic situation, reached a political agreement on the state of health of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Referring to its Resolution 1470 (2005) on the costs of the Common Agricultural Policy and given the challenges facing European agriculture and the need to deal with the cumulative effects of climate changes and the economic crisis, the Assembly asks the member states of the Council of Europe and in particular the member states of the European Union, with an eye to 2013, to introduce appropriate and simplified policies to make the European agricultural policy more competitive and more environment-friendly and also to ensure food safety.