We’re used to the arguments that the CAP’s subsidies and tariffs are very bad for many desperately poor farmers in the developing world, with some going as far as to say that the EU has blood on its hands but now comes a piece of medical research which suggests that EU farm subsidies are responsible for more than ten thousand diet-related deaths among European citizens. [...]

Yesterday, the Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner announced an EU-wide scheme to provide free fruit and vegetables to school children between the ages of 6 and 10. The purpose of the scheme is to encourage more healthy eating habits among children as a contribution to the campaign to fight the obesity epidemic which is storing up very large health costs for European countries in the future.

While the objectives of the scheme are entirely laudable and should be supported, I strongly question what business the EU has getting involved in promoting a School Fruit Scheme (although the scheme also covers vegetables, it seems to be referred to as a fruit scheme – vegetables were always the poor relation!). It simply does not pass the subsidiarity test without stretching the parameters of that test to meaningless levels.

One of the rationales for the scheme is that it would help to bring the EU closer to its citizens. But it could end up having the opposite effect. If citizens cannot be certain where the competences of the member states end and those of the EU begins, then the EU becomes a threatening competitor to national sovereignties rather than a constructive vehicle for collective action. Alienation of this kind was one of the reasons for the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty in the recent Irish referendum.
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The fruit and vegetable reform agreement is another step on the road to a more market oriented CAP. Yet in some ways it is more significant in terms of how it was secured and what it reveals about decision-making in an EU with 27 member states. [...]

Proposals announced by the European Commission for reforming the rules that govern the fruit and vegetable sectors, including potatoes, may be a cause for real concern. The proposals are complex, detailed and have yet to be fully clarified. However, it is clear that the most significant proposal is to integrate fruit and vegetable sector into the Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS). [...]

Seeing through the Commission’s proposal for reform of the fruit and vegetable regime could bring health benefits. With the exception of Greece and Italy no EU member state is currently meeting the World Health Organisation’s recommended consumption rate of 400kg per day per capita. From the viewpoint of Commission officials, getting consumption up to the WHO minimum level would also provide a commercial answer to the sector’s marketing problems. [...]