Speaking in Brussels, Copa Vice-President Joe Healy said “Up against the challenges of Brexit, the Mercosur trade talks, climate change, and the future CAP, 2018 will be a very significant year for farmers. The CAP – which provides affordable food supplies for 500 million European consumers at the same time as supporting 40 million jobs in rural areas – is a success and must be fully funded in future. Farmers should not be worse off as a result of Brexit. Any new EU initiatives need to be funded by new money”.
Copa and Cogeca favour keeping the current structure of the CAP, which has 2 pillars, with simple and common rules, without any renationalisation and no co-financing of first pillar payments
Mr Healy called for no concessions to be made in the trade talks with the Latin American Trade bloc Mercosur. “We already import substantial amounts of beef, sugar, poultry and orange juice from these countries, with 75% of our beef imports (246, 000 tonnes) coming from Mercosur countries. We are also four times more efficient in producing beef than our Brazilian counterparts, releasing one quarter of the greenhouse emissions compared to Brazil. Market access for these products must be minimalised”.
With farmers only getting 8% of the price of a loaf of bread, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen concluded by underlining the need for legislation to tackle unfair trading practices (UTPs) in the food chain, with independent enforcement by an authority and sanctions for those who break the law.
