Défendre l'idée que la PAC doit demeurer une politique commune forte pour assurer l’indépendance et la sécurité alimentaires des Européens ainsi que la stabilité des revenus des agriculteurs et le maintien de la production sur tout le territoire.
2012 Impact report
Voir le suivi sur l'avis de M Souchon sur les propositions législatives sur la PAC après 2013.
2011 Impact report
Common agricultural policy, rural development, food production
The Opinion entitled The CAP towards 2020: Meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future ensured that several of its recommendations were taken up by the Commission in its proposals on the future CAP, including:
• scrapping historical references and introducing a basic payment per hectare which should remove the more flagrant inequalities in allocating direct payments;
• building in a strong ecological component (30% of direct payments will henceforth be linked to agri-environmental measures which go beyond conditionality);
• introducing a specific payment for areas with specific natural constraints;
• introducing a specific payment for young farmers;
• support for active farmers only; setting up a simplified system for smallholder farmers;
• maintaining optional coupled payments for certain types of agriculture or certain agricultural systems in difficulty.
THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- stresses that direct payments must continue to be the cornerstone for stabilising farmers' incomes in return for the delivery of public goods and as compensation for the EU's higher production standards and always provided that decoupling does not risk the disappearance of production in areas with permanent natural handicaps;
- highlights that CAP and cohesion policy cannot be seen in isolation one from the other. The territorial objectives of these two policies must be more closely dovetailed than hitherto, especially at EU level;
- reiterates its support for the proposal to establish a common strategic framework covering the Structural Funds and other territorial development funds such as the EAFRD and the EFF;
- voices its concern regarding the preliminary guidelines issued by the European Commission on the regulation of the agricultural markets for the period post 2013, and considers that the future of the Common Agricultural Policy is indissolubly linked to the maintenance of public market regulation mechanisms to combat price volatility and guarantee stable prices for both producers and consumers;
- states that the CAP's future has to be seen in relation to the future of European trade policy. If the EU wants to make its contribution to the world's food security, then EU and international trade policy must do what is necessary – within the WTO and elsewhere – to ensure that farming in the EU is able to produce in a fair environment;
- draws attention to devolved responsibility in the shaping of future cohesion and agricultural policy. While not querying the Community approach of these policies or the added value of a common policy, local and regional authorities must be more closely involved than hitherto in shaping the future pillars of future CAP. There is no questioning the need to set up a multi-level governance framework if the CAP's Community approach is to be maintained, local responsibility bolstered and greater public acceptance secured;
- emphasises that common agricultural policy objectives can only be reached if adequate funding– is still forthcoming after 2014.