EEAC Working Group on Agricultural Policy
The Model of European Agriculture (MEA) in areas under environmental stress
Conclusions
radical and rapid change threatens our countryside
Farming in Europe is involved in a radical and rapid process of change that hits us all as consumers and citizens, not only the farmers themselves. As consumers and citizens we want safe, healthy food of good quality produced within thriving rural communities and wonderful, accessible and divers landscapes in a way that fosters - not destroys - biodiversity. We would like to see farming all over Europe managing a divers and environmentally healthy countryside and producing the food we want. Will we - as a European community - be able to further elaborate a thriving perspective for the European Rural Areas and create the prerequisites for this. What are the threats and challenges? In which way can the European Environmental Advisory Councils play a role in this radical and rapid process of change that involves us all: as consumers, citizens, farmers, policymakers, politicians and scientists, functioning within a extremely complex multi-layered structure of decision-making and facing processes that are controlled outside our political system?
multi-functionality and sustainability are normative concepts
Multi-functionality is a key-word reflecting the multi-purpose that agriculture has to face up to to be sustainable. Multi-functionality of agriculture is embedded in the international agreement of Agenda 21 and thereby not only a European issue. We need a vector approach on agriculture, optimising the combination of different aims and not a sectorial (one-sided) view. The sectorial or ‘positivist’ approach of the WTO, OECD, USA and CAIRNS-group must be questioned. Agriculture is not mainly oriented on production of food and feed, with other functions as by-products or even as constraints for an optimal agricultural production. Agriculture is also the care-taker of natural resources, such as water, soil and biodiversity. Agri-culture is an expression of the diversity of culture and traditions within Europe. Agriculture is also necessary for a livable countryside and thriving rural communities. Multi-functionality is an essential and normative concept.
multi-functionality has to be the leading concept implementing the CAP. This will strengthen the credibility of the EU within the WTO-negotiations.
As yet the CAP does not reflect the Model of European Agriculture and the essence of multi-functionality. Ubiquitous and unconditional support for agricultural production by the Common Agricultural Policy still prevails. The liberalisation will continue further. The necessary prerequisites to create sustainable farming systems that also are competitive on a world market are not yet developed. The potential (but still to weak) possibilities for a shift towards sustainability laid down in the horizontal regulation (cross-compliance) and in the Rural Development Regulation are too dependent on the willingness of the member states to be fully developed. National farmers organisations must not stand in the way of modulation measures. On a local level farmers organisations and n.g.o.’s work together with the local government to find alternatives and new solutions. These initiatives should be fostered by the EU. Furthermore the EU has to go further to integrate environmental issues into the CAP than the present Agenda 200 does.
friction between short-term and long term interests on a national level
The political system of the European Union where member states try to realise their own - often short term (financial) goals - is a threat towards the drastic choices that have to be made to transform the CAP to meet the present challenges. The national fixation on how to get EU-money is changing towards an fixation on how to adjust to the obligations incorporated in the regulations. We do need better management of EU-regulation on all levels adjusted to national and regional context bridging the gap between the different levels. But we should take care that a national fixation on short term interests not will dominate the political decision-making on the EU-level. The long term interests should prevail on all levels of decisionmaking and not the least on the European level.
a vision on European rural areas is needed: a cultural and institutional shift
The EEAC is convinced that the coming decade we - as a European Community - will have to find common ground developing and communicating a vision on the future European Rural Areas, the role of farming within these areas and the products we want to receive from these areas. We need this common vision within international negotiations, reforming the CAP and stimulating processes of change towards realising this vision on a national and regional level. We also have to develop a vision on how our own national and regional institutions fit into an extended European Community with regulations that are not neutral towards our existing institutions. How can we gap the present mismatch and foster diversity also on the institutional level. Institutional rearrangements fostering our vision on European Rural Areas have to be stimulated.
involvement of industry and societal groups in the cultural and institutional shift
The powerful food-industry and retail industry - with their strong financial interests - have to be counterbalanced and committed to support a new vision on rural areas and farm products. Thereby supporting the already described process of change e.g. by certification, making use of regional and local supply chains and stimulating the development of regional markets complementing the world market .
Societal groups and n.g.o.’s on all levels play an important role in this transformation process. Making full use of the interconnectivity between levels of societal groups on different levels (local, regional, national and European) could stimulate a better institutional match between the different levels of political decision-making.
differences in environmental pressure between regions: managing diversity
EU-regulations and subsidies have to be adjusted to the differences in environmental pressure between regions. The shift from production-based support systems to area based support system in combination with the enlargement will automatically lead to less money from the EU, especially in high-productive and intensively used areas. This shift will have to take into account that the high-productive areas will need a transformation period to adjust to the new situation. In these areas it will be especially urgent to develop new finance systems of agro-environmental measures that will be able cope with high land prices and competition between land uses. We need a long-term economic perspective for agriculture within these rural areas to create a barrier against the pressure of competing land use. In all rural areas within Europe an integrated rural and spatial planning is absolutely essential. Within the areas under environmental pressure the stresses, but also the responses in terms of alternative solution involving not only the government but also private initiatives are more bigger. The possibility to use the request for quality of production and environment as an integrative concept steering the developments is for example larger in areas with a high economic development close to large consumer markets than in depopulating areas.
support by knowledge and communication systems needed
Globalisation, an enlarged European Community and (gen-)technological developments are forcing a new consciousness that has to integrate a cultural perspective on rural areas, biodiversity and production methods thereby connecting the local, regional, national and European level. To support sustainable farming systems across Europe we need an Economy of Scope, not of scale. Broadening and deepening the knowledge basis thereby combining scientific and technological knowledge with the knowledge of the farmers and the local community themselves has to be stimulated. Communication and feedback processes have to be integrated in decision and planning making processes making full use of the available knowledge. Knowledge and communication systems have to be adjusted to be able to be an important instrument for managing the changing agricultural system. These systems will in the future replace the narrow fixation on subsidies and regulations as steering mechanisms.
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