On July 3, a conference was organised on the future of the CAP with the attendance of representatives of six New Member States (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia) in Rzeszów, Poland. Although the original goal of the meeting was to provide solutions to those issues that affect the CEE agriculture after 2014, a Common Statement of Agricultural Ministers was published, which is a useful source to identify NMS interests in the CAP reform debate.
It is the unanimous opinion of the respective New Member States (NMS) that in its current form, the CAP does not serve the original objectives such as simplification, decreasing administrative burdens and convergence. Regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework, the NMS call for consistency between EU objectives and tasks defined in the EC legislative proposals on CAP after 2013. As to new objective criteria regarding the distribution of rural development support, NMS call for the usage of development gap of individual Member States combined with their past performance (allocation for the period 2007-2013).… Read the rest