Fefac welcomes CAP reform

The new CAP will provide new market management tools. Through the market disturbance clause, the European Commission will be in the position to react more rapidly to adverse market conditions, eg. to suspend more rapidly import duties for feed materials when necessary. “I have no doubt that the new risk management toolkit will be extremely useful for EU livestock farmers in the future”, says Fefac President Ruud Tijssens. “Volatility on the agricultural market is here to stay. Therefore, the income stabilisation tool is an appropriate measure to protect the income of EU livestock farmers, while limiting the pressure on the EU budget in a difficult context”.

“The possibility to include Nitrogen-fixing crops as a practice eligible under the ecological focus areas is also a positive move regarding the development of alternative EU protein sources”, states Ruud Tijssens. “We recommend to Member States to uniformly include Nitrogen-fixing crops under their greening measures across the EU-28, so as to maximize the opportunity to grow more EU vegetable proteins”.

Fefac, however, regrets that the additional flexibility granted to Member States could undermine the common dimension of the EU agricultural policy. Maintaining a level playing field among EU farmers is an objective of the CAP that has been neglected in the current reform. Fefac now calls for a rapid agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework in order to provide the EU agricultural sector with more certainty.