Together with MEPs, Copa and Cogeca underlined at a major workshop this week the positive impact of support for rural areas suffering from natural or other specific constraints (ANCs).
The workshop was held with the support of MEPs Othmar Karas, Herbert Dorfmann and Elsi Katainen to look at the current implementation and the benefits of ANC for the sustainability of rural areas.
Opening the event, Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “ANC support in these areas which cover over half the EU area plays a crucial role in preventing land abandonment and maintaining biodiversity. This support should continue as part of the policy mix in the future CAP”.
This was supported by MEPs and the EU Commission Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Development at the high level event. Cases studies presented at the workshop from Finland, France, Latvia, Austria, Germany, and Ireland which showed that without this targeted support, farmers risk exit the faming, putting at risk vast areas of countryside, and mountain regions.
Other important tools were mentioned to support these areas: advisory and training services, to use more innovative solutions and promotion of local products to find ways to better valorise the production coming from the ANCs.
The CAP is essential not only for farmers but for the countryside as a whole. Farming in these areas needs a future, speakers underlined. Conclusions from the event are set to feed into legislation on the future of food and farming post 2020.
