BirdLife International is “a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. BirdLife Partners operate in over one hundred countries and territories worldwide.”

Anyone who has been in and around Brussels policy circles over the past few years will know that Ariel Brunner is among the most knowledgeable and persuasive advocates for radical reform of the CAP. Recently been promoted from his role in charge of the agriculture policy brief, he is now BirdLife’s Head of EU Policy. Despite the new portfolio that includes big issues like climate change, he is certain to be in the mix at the crunch moments over the next year or two as the EU decides the future of the CAP.

In the course of the interview Ariel makes the case for an ambitions Europe-wide agriculture policy based upon the idea of putting money behind sustainable farming. He takes on the argument that in the wake of the food price spikes of 2008, Europe can afford to ignore the environment and calls for farmers and environmentalists to put past conflicts behind them and work together. He explains why the current political debate on the CAP is disappointing, with most member states defending narrow views of their own ‘national interest’ and the European Parliament too often defending the status quo.

CAP Reform Conversations: Ariel Brunner, BirdLife International from farmsubsidy.org on Vimeo.

De Castro explains that he has always regarded himself as a CAP reformer and sets out his vision for a reshaping of the EU’s farm subsidy system. He advocates a shift to a basic flat rate aid payment to farmers, plus additional funds to be allocated at the discretion of member states. He argues for introducing minimum and maximum thresholds for payments (a minimum around 300 euro and a maximum in the range 400,000-500,000 euro). He speaks in favour of co-financing of the CAP, so long as it’s not optional for member states. He explains his vision for the European Parliament’s role under the new Lisbon Treaty rules, including his idea of a permanent seat for the Agriculture Committee on the Agriculture Council and how he’d like COMAGRI to take part in CAP comitology.

CAP Reform Conversations: Paolo De Castro MEP from farmsubsidy.org on Vimeo.

The film is available on Youtube in five parts.

He is probably most famous for the ‘bond scheme’ for CAP reform – under which a future stream of entitlements is converted into an attractive lump sum ‘buyout’ – that he devised in 1991 and subsequently elaborated with Professor Alan Swinbank of Reading University. Two weeks ago he gave a presentation at the European Commission’s conference on the future of the EU budget. He presents a succinct summary of why CAP reform is still very much needed, and what direction reform should take. He did not advocate any particular exit strategy from direct payments such as converting subsidies into tradable bonds. Perhaps once he has freed himself of the constraints of being an OECD employee he will advocate his own personal vision on how bring political economy and agricultural economics can be combined to achieve a more rational European farm policy. You can watch the presentation in full below.

Chapeau, Stefan! Enjoy your freedom but please don’t give up on the battle for CAP reform. Europe needs you!

“Your position, Commissioner, on compulsory modulation, is right. Your position on decoupling is right. For once we have a Commission that seriously wants to reform the CAP but faces a Parliament that always fails to deliver on this issue and believes that the challenges that we face can be solved by sticking to the old, discredited system. Hang tough, Commissioner, you are right and sadly, I suspect, this chamber will be wrong.”

It might interest some to see the Commissioner’s short speech.

The maps were featured over the weekend on Globo, the leading Brazilian TV station: