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| 04 jun 2012 |
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CAP: what about climate change and development?
In the run up to Rio + 20, European deputies and environmental and development experts organize a hearing on the 5th of June, in the European Parliament in Brussels, to address their concerns on the possible external effects of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union.
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Members of the European Parliament (MEP) are demanding that the reform of the CAP will take into account the global environmental challenges and climate change. Therefore, in the run up to Rio + 20, they invite experts to participate in a hearing on biodiversity and coherence in the CAP reform. Currently, the new CAP is being discussed by the European Parliament and should be implemented starting from 2014.
Giving her explicit support to the greening of the CAP, MEP Schniebler-Jastram expresses her concern about the effects of the CAP in developing countries. She observes that “from the perspective of development policy, one could suggest an entirely different CAP than that presented in the reform proposals by the European Commission.”
“The reformed CAP continues to have external effects which are not sufficiently reflected in the European Commission proposals. Therefore, the CAP regulations must be carefully checked in the light of the Treaty obligation to ensure Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) (Article 208 TFEU),” states Schnieber-Jastram. She adds that “in the light of a broader understanding of PCD which goes beyond ‘do no harm’, some elements of the second pillar, more particular the EU foreign policy, could help create synergies and enhance cooperation between farmers in Europe and the developing world.”
Small-scale livestock farming matters
“The new CAP should not be treated as an internal policy of the EU, because it has an impact outside Europe and more precisely on development countries,” states Joep van Mierlo, director of Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium, member organization of the Coalition of European Lobbies for Eastern African Pastoralism (CELEP). “A reformed CAP should pay more attention to small-scale livestock keeping, as an important economic, social and environmental factor for the development of countries in the South. Over one billion people who live in chronic hunger and poverty depend on animals to provide essential nutrition and livelihoods. Neglecting these populations is neglecting humankind. Moreover, livestock keepers in Europe and the developing world are faced with common challenges, like climate change, access to markets and price volatility.”
Speakers
Experts speaking at the hearing will propose concrete measures of how these concerns can best be addressed in a reformed CAP.
- Joep van Mierlo, Director at Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium
- Maria Witmer, Senior policy researcher at The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL)
- Ced Hesse, Principal researcher in the Climate Change Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development
- Mirjam van Reisen, Tilburg University, Director Europe External Policy Advisors
- Bas Arts, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Professor at the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group
The hearing is organised with the support of the following MEPs:
Mrs Birgit Schnieber-Jastram, Bas Eickhout, Filip Kaczmarek, Thijs Berman and Ricardo Cortés Lastra
Practical information
Date: 5 June
Time: 14:00 – 15:30
Place: European Parliament in Brussels, room ASP 3F383
Registration: birgit.schnieber-jastram@europarl.europa.eu
About Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium
Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium is a Belgian NGO, member of VSF Europa, that fights hunger and poverty in remote African areas by improving livestock keeping; this amongst others by improving veterinary services, training livestock keepers, creating feed stocks and improving the access to livestock markets, water and pastures. Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium has projects in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya. When the animals are healthy, the people are too.
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