The EPP-ED Group has always played a key role in defending the interests of European farmers Our Group, and particularly its members in the Agriculture Committee, has been able to support the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) through reports adopted in the European Parliament. It has helped to adjust the CAP to fit the new international trade challenges and the new financial framework 2007-2013. Our European agriculture model advocates keeping farming for food production in the European Union, promoting quality products, food security, promoting health and respect for the environment, particularly by maintaining forests and the rural landscape, and biofuel production.

PRESS RELEASES

03/12/2008	Agrarausschuss für vereinfachte Statistikpflichten bei Pflanzprodukten/ Agriculture Committee for simplified crop statistics. Elisabeth Jeggle MEP
21/11/2008	Bilan de santé de la PAC: Un bon accord pour de nouveaux défis. Véronique Mathieu, MdPE
20/11/2008	Bee population dying out: the European Commission has to wake up! Astrid Lulling MEP
19/11/2008	Common Agricultural Policy: European Parliament wants cautious reform. Lutz Goepel MEP
18/11/2008	Fighting obesity through free distribution of fruit in schools. Maria Petre MEP

EVENT

Conference on Challenges and Future Developments in the Agricultural Sector MEPs Petya Stavreva (Bulgaria), Maria Petre (Romania), and Czeslaw Siekierski (Poland) are organising a conference under the auspices of Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Neil

Parish MEP (United Kingdom), which will focus on farming challenges and developments drawing on examples from Bulgaria, Romanania, and Poland.

The conference took place on Thursday 11th December 2008 in Brussels.

Photos of the meeting

SESSION NEWS

CAP Health Check

Within the framework of the EU budget's mid-term review in 2005 there has also been a 'health check' on the reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Its main aim was to decouple direct payments of agricultural funds to farmers from their actual production. Another important aspect of the package to be voted in the Agricultural Committee is the future amount of money to be diverted from direct payments into rural development ('modulation') until the next financial period in 2013. There is broad consensus that the cuts proposed by the Commission are too high, so the Committee will put forward its own proposal.

POLICY

More than half the population of the 27-member EU lives in rural areas, representing 90% of the land surface. Rural areas are to a certain extent lagging behind urban areas; incomes are below average and there is more unemployment.

The members of the EPP-ED Group are aware that the new CAP will be based on defending the interests of consumers and taxpayers. They also realise that in future most agricultural aid will be ‘decoupled’ from production: single farm payments depending on surface area rather than production. In this way, our Group has fought to maintain the agricultural production in less favoured areas...