After the December 2012 Council proposed amendments, the vote of the COMAGRI on January 24, 2013 de facto kills any hope of deriving any serious biodiversity benefit from the CAP reform. The COMAGRI amendments are particularly fatal to the Ecological Focus Area (EFA) measure.
The Team
J Christophe Bureau
Economist
Jean-Christophe Bureau completed his doctorate thesis at the University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne). He is professor of economics at AgroParisTech, Paris Institute of Technology, and works on agricultural policy and international trade. Jean-Christophe is a research associate at CEPII (Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales). He is deputy director of the INRA research unit in public economics (UMR INRA 210, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) and vice president of the Economics and Social Sciences Department at AgroParisTech. Previously, he worked in different places including as a volunteer in Haïti for two years, at the Economic Research Service of the US Department of agricuture, at the OECD Secretariat, at Iowa State University and at the Institute for International Integration Studies at Trinity College in Dublin. He was scientific adviser at the Council for Economic Analysis of the French Prime Minister, in charge of agriculture and environment from 2002 to 2004.
Recent blog posts written by J Christophe Bureau
The US Farm Bill: Lessons for CAP Reform ?
The US Farm Bill debate has important consequences for the EU. But it should not be a source of inspiration for the MEPs…
The European Parliament report on the measurement of farm support
A variety of estimates of the level of farm support circulate. Many of them rely on creative accounting. For example, during the recent farm bill debate in the US Senate on C-Span television, a Senator claimed that the EU subsidized its farmers seventeen times more than the US, quoting as “evidence” that farm subsidies accounted [...]
French environmentalists try the rough way
A hard-hitting advertising campaign by French environmentalists has inflamed the national debate on agriculture, but will it result in a greener CAP?
Why are we so lousy at measuring farmers’ incomes?
Tumbling farm incomes make good headlines, but the reality is that we don’t seem to be able to measure farmers’ income in a satisfactory way in the EU.
Does France really want to suspend agri-environmental measures?
The president of the main farmers’ union, the Fedération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA) Jean Michel Le Metayer called for “a pause in agri-environmental measures” and the suspension of new measures. The Ministry of agriculture seems to have some sympathy for this position. While it turns out that it is more the GAECs than the MAEs that are at stake, this is illustrative of the French debate.
“Notre Europe” brainstorming
The think tank “Notre Europe” just released a document on the future of the CAP. Notre Europe’s point of view is that because the health check (HC) is likely to lead mostly to short term adjustments, the “real” debate on the CAP is likely to take place before the next financial perspectives. The outcome could [...]
