100 posts
LONDON: AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW
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The initiative of making London the first Sustainable Fish City in the world is gaining momentum, also thanks to the Sustainable Fish Forum that took place in London on 24 January. I had the chance to partake in the event, organised by the Marine Con...
The Polish Presidency and Agriculture: A Mixed Performance
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The Polish Presidency was not focusing especially on agriculture but has reached some important results as well as missed some opportunities depending on which side of the coin one looks.
Proposals for a greener PAC policy: a source of debate
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While key farmers’ organizations voice criticism of the European Commission´s commitment to fostering a greener Common Agricultural Policy (PAC), organic producers welcome proposed changes as they think these are positive steps toward more susta...
Green space controversy grows
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The controversy over the so-called 'Green Space' in the CAP reform proposals is growing: Green Space A somewhat embattled farm commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, is insistent that the proposals do not amount to set aside. As farm as farm organizations ar...
Electronic cigarettes: the future or the end of smoking?
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At a time of increasing suspicion vis-à-vis e-cigarettes, the UK government sides with this controversial type of product. The battle fought on the regulation of electronic cigarettes epitomizes the philosophical divide over health policy today and...
EU agricultural policy: Responding to the crisis?
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From VoxEU: "As Europe battles a life-threatening crisis, the European Commission has found time to discuss the much-maligned Common Agricultural Policy. This column, by the former OECD Director for Trade and Agriculture, argues that far from sei...
Comoros islands commit to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
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A delegation of the European Commission and a delegation of the Union of Comoros met within the framework of the Joint Committee to discuss issues linked to the implementation of the Fisheries partnership agreement between the EU and the Union of...
Cioloş defends plans to reform EU farm policy
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Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloş faced a barrage of criticism yesterday (7 November) over plans to overhaul the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) before a rare gathering of national farm ministers and members of the European Parliament.
Is Europe losing touch with reality?
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Stefan TangermannIs Europe losing touch with reality? One might think so given the surprise Greek decision to hold a referendum on the austerity package. The fear of contagion is very real and if the euro is confined to a small core of northern me...
CAP reform proposals have no friends
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The Commission's proposals for the reform of the CAP have not gone down well in any quarter and have managed to draw fire from Britain and France: Reform Of course, it was ever thus and one is never going to devise a reform that is welcomed in all q...
Olivier de Schutter: CAP reform must put an end to dumping
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“The CAP is a 50 billion euro contradiction of the EU’s commitment to help put developing world agriculture back on its feet, and will remain so under today’s reform plans. Farm subsidies of this magnitude will always produce distortion...
No great suprises in CAP reform proposals
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There are no great surprises in the widely leaked Commission proposals for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy released today: CAP reform Also, not surprisingly, UK ministers have criticised the proposals as inadequate.The reform proposals have...
Enlargement and new agriculture policy
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This summer we announced that we will welcome Croatia as the 28th EU Member State in 2013 if the remaining reforms are implemented according to the timetable. The news on EU enlargement from today’s meeting with the College of Commissioners is...
Eurobarometer on CAP reform
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New poll shows public support for main thrust of the Commission's reform plans...
Britain, Poland join calls for 'radical' CAP reform
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London and Warsaw have put themselves firmly on a collision course with France over the upcoming reform of the EU's farm policy, calling for a "modernisation of European agriculture" which they claim currently "protects outdated practices of t...
DON’T KILL THE (GODS’) MESSENGER
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Technically, we refer to them as “cetaceans by-catch”, but the awkward feelings you get looking at the picture of a dolphin entangled in a fishing net, dead, clearly show how this definition is cold. In Greek mythology, dolphins were mess...
Let The Sunshine In
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We're calling for new rules to increase transparency in farm subsidies. Will you add your voice to our campaign?
Energy use of biomass of agricultural origin
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At the 3110th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 20 September 2011, the ministers held an exchange of views on the “Energy use of biomass of agricultural origin as an important element of the Common Agricultural P...
How will Rural Development funds be allocated among the member states?
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Simulations of different criteria for the distribution of Pillar 2 funds in the Commission’s draft impact assessment show how political is the choice of objective criteria.
EU sugar refiners want EU to abolish duty on sugar imports
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The European Union should abolish a 98 euros ($137) a metric ton duty on sugar imports from a group of countries including Brazil and Australia to ensure refiners have “fair access” to raw materials, an industry group said. The EU suspended th...
Commission’s impact assessment of direct payments changes
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Commission impact assessment confirms very limited redistribution across Member States under the preferred option in the multiannual financial framework.
Sugar quotas to go
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The EU is to end sugar quotas and guaranteed minimum prices in 2016. This represents a one year extension after the scheduled end to quotas to give producers more time to adjust: Sugar It is hoped that the change will boost output and reduce prices...
Greening element in CAP reform increased
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The European Commission is proposing to increase the greening element in the CAP reform in relation to Pillar 1 measures: Greening The proportion of farmland to be placed in ecological measures would be increased from the previously proposed 5 per c...
Leaked EU Texts Reveal Greener Farm Policy, ‘Recoupling’ Plans
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Via Scoop.it – The Great TransitionLeaked EU draft texts confirm expectations that the 27-member bloc is likely to seek to ‘green’ farm subsidy payments after 2013 by adding new rules on protecting the environment. Controversially, though,...
Draft market organisation regulation confirms market orientation with safeguards
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The end of sugar quotas and a strengthened market disturbance clause are the highlights of the draft proposal on common market organisations.
Leaked rural development regulation has few surprises
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Greater flexibility in how the money can be spent will be welcomed by Member States.
Leaked legislative proposals anticipate Commission CAP reform proposals due October 12th
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Compulsory greening the biggest surprise in draft Commission regulation on direct payments after 2013. Commission sets goal of uniform direct payment per ha across all Member States by 2029.
GMO honey banned in Europe
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“Bitter honey for the GMO lobby,” quips the Tageszeitung on its front page following the ban brought down by the European Court of Justice on honey containing traces – even minute ones – of genetically modified organisms. “The ruling is...
EU-US: A PARTNERSHIP TO ERADICATE ILLEGAL FISHING
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I am just on my way back from the United States, where I did sign a significant agreement between Europe and the US administration on putting an end to pirate fishing with Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and...
Farm incomes up
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Farm incomes are up in the EU, but there is considerable variation across member states. EU farm incomes jumped by almost 13% last year, thanks to higher crop and milk prices, but the UK was among just seven member states to see a drop.The biggest i...
Informal meeting of the agriculture and fisheries ministers
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An informal meeting of agriculture and fisheries ministers organised by the Polish Presidency of the EU Council and chaired by Marek Sawicki, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, will be held on 11-13 September in Wrocław. The meeti...
EU CAP review: vestiges of the past instead of signpost to the future
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Via Scoop.it – The Great Transition“this new “modernisation” of the CAP is continuing business as usual, with a bit of “greening” and a few technical improvements and simplifications here and there, but it does next to nothing to...
The Great EU Olive Oil Gravy Train
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There are aproximately 500 million olive tree‘s planted across southern Europe. The eurozone produces around 75% of the worlds olive oil. Now if you are not involved in the olive oil industry you may be thinking so what? I just … Continue...
New member states call for fairer CAP
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A group of former Soviet Bloc countires have called on the European Commission to act without discrimination towards new member states in its upcoming review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In a joint declaration, agriculture ministers fr...
Tobacco and a public consultation: NGOs versus NGOs
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England Expects has written a blog post titled “Citizens versus NGOs“, quoting the summary of reponses of government agencies, NGOs and individual contributions from the recently published “Report on the public consultation on the ...
How the EU quietly empties African waters
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Making European fisheries more sustainable, stop overfishing and ban fish discards - those are the centerpieces of the new European fisheries policy. Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki presented it to the media and the European Parliament last wee...
What future for the CAP financial discipline mechanism?
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Whether direct payments could still be reduced under the financial discipline mechanism in the 2014-20 period and, if yes, how it would work has still not been clarified by the Commission.
New plans proposed to preserve EU fish populations
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By DON MELVIN BRUSSELS (AP) – Fish populations are being depleted to such an extent that Europe’s children face the prospect of a future where they’ll see fish only in pictures and not on their plates, a senior European Union offici...
Farmers' unions accept CAP budget proposals
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Although they are concerned about particular aspects of the CAP budget proposals, such as the flexibility to transfer funds between the two pillars, farmers leaders are unsurprisingly generally satisfied with the deal against a background of fiscal a...
MEPs side with Commission
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MEPs on the Agriculture Committee have sided with the Commission over the question of scaling farm payments so that bigger farms receive less: Scaling .Such an idea has always been unpalatable to Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic which have a...
Commission remains committed to publication of beneficiaries of EU farm aid
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Following the publication of new rules, EU Member State Ministries of Agriculture are required to publish before April 30 2011 detailed figures on all legal persons (companies) which are beneficiaries of Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) funding in...
Towards a fairer EU agriculture policy?
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As the EU embarks on further reform of the Common Agriculture Policy, the Union's newest member states are demanding that their views are taken into account. Agriculture no longer absorbs most of the European Union funds. But even now, when summit...
Coveney, Creighton and Europe
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A lot of people mentioned to me that were surprised that Simon Coveney was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food. To me it was no surprise, not only is Simon popular with farmers, in a Red C Poll for the Irish Farmers Journal Simon was...
Member states’ experts remain at odds over CAP reform
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The views of the member states’ agriculture experts continue to differ on essential points related to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy after 2013, such as the future of the agriculture budget, criteria for the distribution of direct sup...
Commissioner Barnier at the International Agriculture Fair in Paris
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Visiting the international agriculture fair in Paris, the commissioner talked about the revision of the financial market instruments directive, to be proposed in Brussels in June. Like the French government, Barnier said he was very concerned abou...
UK governments have failed to support organic farming
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Successive British governments have failed to support and promote the organic food and farming sector, according to a damning report. Their failures have left the UK an isolated "lazy man of Europe". Research from the UK's biggest organic body hig...
Article on Court After Interlaken
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The newest issue of the European Journal of International Law (vol. 21, no. 4) includes an article by Helen Keller, Andreas Fischer and Daniela Kühne entitled 'Debating the Future of the European Court of Human Rights after the Interlaken Conferenc...
The CAP towards 2020 - Video interview
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The EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is currently under revision. The Hungarian Presidency is devoting much energy into the reform of the CAP. The Commission has released a communication, the Parliament and the Council are debating it now, lobby...
Doha round agreement would leave EU farm subsidies untouched
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Decoupling means EU has plenty of headroom if a WTO agreement to cap trade-distorting farm subsidies is reached...
The subsidies dilemma
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A farmer writing to Farmers Weekly says of Caroline Spelman's support for phasing out the Single Farm Payment, 'Surely she must realise the subsidy keeps most farmers in business?'The correctness of this view in the short term, for livestock farmers...
Ciolos lays it on the line
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Dacian Ciolos has emerged as a more authoritative and decisive farm commissioner than many expected. Whether his line is the correct one is another matter. But the grumpy old man of British farming, Farmers Weekly correspondent David Richardson wri...
Germany investigates criminal origin of dioxin contamination
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The dangers of the recent dioxin-contaminated eggs, which originated from Germany, were again downplayed by the European Commission . But Germany announced it was now investigating whether the contamination, which is now of European proportions, i...
Call for fundamental CAP reform
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In a major speech at the Oxford conference, secretary of state Caroline Spelman has called for a more ambitious approach to CAP reform and a fundamental change in the nature of the CAP: Spelman She's talking the talk like former secretaries of state...
The EU supports the adaptation of the sugar industries in Belize, Swaziland, Congo
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On the 22 of December 2010 the European Commission has approved three financing decisions in favour of Belize (EUR 18 791 000), Swaziland (EUR 12 057 000) and Congo (EUR 1 059 000) to support their sugar sector in the framework of the Accompanying Me...
Commission supplies Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine to Zambia
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The European Commission has sent a consignment of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine to Zambia in order to help the African nation's efforts in fighting an outbreak of the disease in the northern part of the country. The consignment consists of 80,...
Farming your City, Greening your Future? L’agriculture urbaine, l’écologisation du Futur??
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Since Michelle Obama started growing organic tomatoes in the White House garden it is a hype: growing your own food on roofs, walls, in hidden gardens and on derelict industrial sites. And although there may be doubts about its potentials to save the...
Milk market on track for soft landing following quota removal
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The Commission has just forwarded the first of two required reports on the milk market situation and the prospects for a smooth phasing-out of the milk quota system. The next one is due at the end of 2012. The report concludes that a “soft land...
EU Farm Workers Get Richer
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This year, as Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, announced Monday, EU farm incomes per worker are up 12.3% after falling 10.7% in 2009.
Carry on intervening
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Conservative MEP and spokesman for agriculture Richard Ashworth has called for the return of intervention purchasing in the CAP in the interests of food security. He told a conference at the Royal Agricultural College: 'It's absolutely vital to have...
Milk price crisis: Agriculture Committee's first reactions to Commission plan
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The Commission's proposed regulation on contractual relations in the dairy market was generally welcomed by the Agriculture Committee on Thursday. However, MEPs also stressed the need to curb price volatility and worried that proposed ceilings on the...
Commission proposes new measures to improve stability in the dairy sector
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The European Commission has on November 9 adopted a proposal on "contractual relations in the milk sector". The proposal aims to boost the position of the dairy producer in the dairy supply chain and prepare the sector for a more market oriented an...
War clouds threaten, and swords rattle in their sheaths, and the new Continental system is unwrapped.
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We are to go to war again, with Iceland. Richard Benyon, the landlocked farmer who represents these Isles on fisheries matters is off to Brussels tomorrow, nomibnally to fight for British fishing. He has of course used that traditional old line,Envir...
The future of direct payments: a Scottish view
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The Commission’s November 2010 communication on the future of the CAP post-2013 envisaged that Pillar 1 direct payments might, in future, consist of three elements: a basic income support payment; a green payment; and a natural handicap payment. An...
Promotion of EU agricultural products outside the EU
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The European Commission has approved measures to provide information on, and to promote agricultural products in third countries. Member States submitted 24 programmes to the Commission to be examined. The 7 programmes that have been accepted are fro...
Strengtehning Food safety systems in ACP
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EDES is a EU-ACP programme funded to the tune of 29,5m € under the 9th EDF within a global framework of support to poverty reduction through economic empowerment. Its implementation over a 2010-2014 period has been entrusted to a consortium of Euro...
