Tag: single CMO

Posted on

Intervention arrangements in the new CAP

Growing price volatility on agricultural markets has renewed focus on the role of market support instruments. In successive CAP reforms, the role of market instruments has changed from essentially determining the market price received by producers to providing a market safety net. Intervention prices are set at low levels which ensure that they are only used in times of real crisis.

The graph below illustrates the extent of support price reductions which have taken place for different sectors. These price cuts allowed the drastic decrease of public stocks in the EU between the early 1990s and recent years, which has in turn reduced the budget pressure stemming from overproduction.


However, intervention measures have not been abolished. The available market measures were used in the dairy market from January 2009 to beginning 2010 to limit the drop in EU prices. The purchase of public stocks provided a buffer to mitigate the downward path of prices, although their accumulation also had the effect of delaying the pace of price recovery to some extent.… Read the rest

Posted on

More supply management demanded in COMAGRI single CMO report

The French EPP member Michel Dantin is the COMAGRI rapporteur for the Commission’s draft revisions of the single CMO regulation. His draft report is detailed and comprehensive – he alone has tabled 434 amendments to the Commission’s draft regulation. Many of these amendments implement the two guiding principles which animate his report, namely, distrust in the ability of markets to always work satisfactorily where agriculture is concerned, and the desire to emphasise the legislative role of the Parliament vis a vis both the Council and the Commission.
Mr Dantin is a believer in the theory of ‘agricultural exceptionalism’ and that farmers require state assistance to operate in dangerous markets.

The fact that agricultural markets are, as a result, becoming more volatile implies first of all that the CAP budget, especially where the Single CMO is concerned, has to continue on its present scale if it is to cope with the crises which can, at any moment, threaten Europe’s agricultural production potential and hence jeopardise the CAP’s prime aim, namely to ensure that Europeans can enjoy food security.

… Read the rest