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Jun. 11th, 2003 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerFinally, the EU is moving towards common sense:
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) takes up nearly half of all EU spending and is blamed for encouraging massive overproduction - creating notorious "food mountains" and exports at subsidised prices.
The European Commission wants to abolish the subsidies, and replace them with a single payment which would reduce over time, leaving farmers to make decisions according to what consumers want, rather than how much subsidy they could earn.
BBC environment correspondent Tim Hirsch says there is great pressure to reach agreement this week ahead of world trade talks in Mexico in September where farm subsidies will be a major issue.
Under the proposed plan, the money saved from scrapping subsidies would be used to help boost rural development and environmental protection.
The EU subsidies on farming make it much harder for the African farming communities to export produce to Europe, making their financial situation much worse. By changing this, we can hopefully improve their situation dramatically.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) takes up nearly half of all EU spending and is blamed for encouraging massive overproduction - creating notorious "food mountains" and exports at subsidised prices.
The European Commission wants to abolish the subsidies, and replace them with a single payment which would reduce over time, leaving farmers to make decisions according to what consumers want, rather than how much subsidy they could earn.
BBC environment correspondent Tim Hirsch says there is great pressure to reach agreement this week ahead of world trade talks in Mexico in September where farm subsidies will be a major issue.
Under the proposed plan, the money saved from scrapping subsidies would be used to help boost rural development and environmental protection.
The EU subsidies on farming make it much harder for the African farming communities to export produce to Europe, making their financial situation much worse. By changing this, we can hopefully improve their situation dramatically.
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Date: 2003-06-12 03:59 am (UTC)