European farmers should invest and bet on agriculture beyond 2020, as it will be less bureaucratic, more focused on making the most of digital technology, and much more focused on improving the quality of life of farmers, according to what the Commissioner of Agriculture of the European Union (EU), Phil Hogan, stated in an interview.
The Irish Commissioner stressed the need of encouraging young Europeans to bet on agriculture, and highlighted the Brussels initiative to promote the creation of a platform with risk management tools so that community farmers and ranchers can improve their performance.
Faced with price volatility and the challenge of climate change, which has a direct effect on production, EU farmers are calling for a strong post-2020 CAP, which encourages investment and stabilizes their income, among others things.
The European Commission and the EU Member States are currently debating the format and budgets that the CAP will have after 2020. This Pandora's box was officially opened after the publication of a Brussels discussion paper, which suggested a further simplification of this key EU policy, by giving EU partners more room to manage their own needs individually, among other issues.
The next Financial Perspectives (the block's multi-year budget) and the amounts that will be allocated to the CAP are still unknown, but it is one of the main bones of contention, which generates concern in the sector.
"We are already working on new legislative proposals that will make the CAP more focused on tangible results, no matter what the final budget for the post-2020 period is," said the senior European official.
Brussels' objective, according to the European Commissioner, is to establish solid and clear EU agricultural policy goals. These objectives include ensuring that the future European agricultural policy plays a more ambitious role in the fight against climate change, in line with the goals that Brussels has.
"The new CAP will give Member States much more flexibility to decide how they want to achieve these objectives taking into account their specific situations," Hogan said.
Source: efeagro.com