The Green-10 grouping of European environmental groups (including big-hitters like Birdlife, WWF and Greenpeace) has produced a dismal scorecard of the outgoing European Commission’s environmental record. The report describes Agriculture Commissioner Fischer Boel has having begun well but quickly reverted to a ‘disappointing business-as-usual approach’ to the common agricultural policy.
The health check was a ‘wasted opportunity’ that left ‘the grossly distorted system of subsidies virtually unchanged’. The Commissioner left environmental measures unfunded and gave up the environmental gains of the now abandoned set-aside system without introducing any countervailing measures.
On the positive side, she is praised for having supported greater transparency in farm subsidies and for improving rural development policies.
Interestingly, 47 per cent of those readers of this blog who have expressed an opinion, think that Fischer Boel should serve a second term as Agriculture Commissioner.
Link: Green 10: Off Target: European Commission 2004-09
