EU policies jeopardise food independence, say 50% in poll
European voters are as sad as farmers with the bloc’s safety of agriculture, accounting the most important slice of the EU finances.
Virtually half of the respondents in an Ipsos survey of 26,000 European voters carried out for Euronews thought of the EU’s actions to impression negatively on the safety of European agriculture and the bloc’s meals independence.
Each facets take centre stage within the EU’s farming subsidies programme, the Frequent Agricultural Coverage (CAP), which can be one of many bloc’s greatest money envelopes.
The ballot end result could also be seen as a considerable failure of the bloc’s key agricultural coverage, with EU lawmakers failing to capitalise on funding particularly earmarked for agriculture – which accounts for one-third of the general EU finances.
Whereas solely a fifth of these surveyed have been glad by the EU’s actions in guaranteeing safety for Europe’s farming, the discontent appears to peak significantly in international locations with the largest agricultural output, with few exceptions comparable to Denmark and Romania.
“It’s attention-grabbing that respondents within the greatest EU producers, led by France but in addition Poland, Spain, and Italy, have essentially the most unfavourable views,” Alan Matthews, professor of European Agricultural Coverage on the Dublin Trinity School, instructed Euronews.
For Matthews, a number one knowledgeable within the CAP programme, whether or not respondents so answered “as a result of they assume the push for greater environmental ambition has made EU agriculture uncompetitive or as a result of they assume the EU has not taken adequate steps to stop extra aggressive imports by way of commerce coverage”, stays an open query for policymakers.
A brand new political fault line
The EU’s agri-food coverage has been a sore level for Ursula von der Leyen’s administration. A earlier evaluation by Euronews discovered that greater than half of the guarantees of the flagship “Farm to Fork” technique unveiled firstly of the mandate stay unmet.
A rising polarisation amongst stakeholders within the sector led the Fee chief to name outing and droop new proposals within the pipeline, convening as a substitute a so-called ‘strategic dialogue’ forward of the EU elections to deliver events nearer collectively.
Nonetheless, the unique Euronews ballot reveals the rise of a political fault line as properly.
“What’s attention-grabbing is the clear left-right divide between the political teams,” commented Matthews, declaring that the majority unfavourable views have been held by these expressing help for far-right (ID) and right-wing events (ECR) whereas extra voters supporting the Left and Inexperienced teams felt the EU was doing a minimum of an inexpensive job.
The overall structure of the CAP, which was agreed upon by lawmakers firstly of this mandate, has already incurred amendments to satisfy farmers’ considerations.
In response to Italy’s agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida, these tweaks have been deemed obligatory to repair some flaws within the CAP design initially introduced by progressive and inexperienced political forces.
“The CAP was conditioned by [former Commission Vice-president] Timmermans, who had an ideological strategy and who happily not situations European insurance policies,” mentioned the conservative politician on the March month-to-month gathering of EU-27 agricultural minister in Brussels.
Timmermans’ farewell put right-wing and conservative political teams “able to overview the framework linking environmental sustainability to financial sustainability,” he mentioned.
Meals independence and meals sovereignty
The unique Euronews ballot additionally confirmed renewed curiosity in ‘meals independence’, more and more related to the idea of ‘meals sovereignty’.
Initially coined by the agroecological motion within the Nineties, meals sovereignty is in vogue in present political discourse, significantly in France and Italy.
How meals sovereignty might be outlined at EU stage stays unclear nonetheless, with some believing it ought to type a part of a rethinking of the bloc’s commerce coverage, and others in search of to spice up home EU agriculture manufacturing in any respect prices.
Matthews linked the end result of the Euronews polls to a current Eurobarometer survey which canvassed residents’ views on the connection between worldwide commerce and agriculture.
“Virtually 9 out of ten respondents agreed that agricultural imports of any origin ought to solely enter the EU if their manufacturing complied with EU environmental and animal welfare requirements,” he mentioned, including {that a} majority of the Eurobarometer respondents additionally supported commerce boundaries on imports, aside from growing international locations.
A lately introduced sustainability indicator developed by the assume tank FarmEurope indicated the EU’s meals sovereignty is enhancing in each meat and dairy merchandise, with a surplus for crop manufacturing led by France, in addition to central European and Baltic international locations.
Nonetheless, the EU’s self-sufficiency in feed for livestock appears to deteriorating quickly with critical deficits within the Iberian Peninsula, Germany, and Italy.