The pillars of CAP must stand firm

“Maintaining the two-pillar structure is essential for the CAP”, said Albert Deß MEP, the EPP Group Spokesman in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee on ‘The Future of Food and Farming’ Communication. “It is important that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) remains together”, underlined Deß and warned of the proposals that would lead to unnecessary distortions of competition.

“Maintaining the two-pillar structure is essential for the CAP as the first pillar, direct payments, gives farmers long-term planning certainty. I have also advocated to ensure that agricultural payments in the Member States are aligned. The European Commission has now taken up this requirement in its Communication, which I rate positively.” He recalled that addressing price volatility and market crises are important aspects in the further development of the CAP.

"The Commission needs to be praised for its commitment to continuing the process of CAP simplification. However, there are concerns about whether the Commission itself will be able to fully implement it, taking into account its expected administrative effort to assess the national implementation programmes that are supposed to be the basis for the future CAP", said Czeslaw Siekierski MEP, the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee.

"Today's Communication explains much about the presentation of expectations for the CAP in the context of the environment, fighting climate change, sustainable development, etc. At the same time, it seems that there is too little reference to the results that farmers themselves are to produce, to the issue of increasing profitability of their work, improving the standard of living or the stability of the agricultural sector, i.e. conditions that are essential for increasing interest in agriculture among young people."