BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — FEFAC said on June 28 that it welcomes the political agreement reached by the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council on the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). 

The new CAP will provide new market management tools. Through the market disturbance clause, the European Commission will be in the position to react more rapidly to adverse market conditions, e.g. to suspend more rapidly import duties for feed materials when necessary. 

“I have no doubt that the new risk management toolkit will be extremely useful for E.U. livestock farmers in the future,” said FEFAC President Ruud Tijssens. “Volatility on the agricultural market is here to stay. Therefore, the income stabilization tool is an appropriate measure to protect the income of E.U. livestock farmers, while limiting the pressure on the E.U. budget in a difficult context.

“The possibility to include Nitrogen-fixing crops as a practice eligible under the ecological focus areas is also a positive move regarding the development of alternative E.U. protein sources. We recommend to member states to uniformly include nitrogen-fixing crops under their greening measures across the E.U.-28, so as to maximize the opportunity to grow more E.U. vegetable proteins.”

FEFAC said that it regrets that the additional flexibility granted to member states could undermine the common dimension of the E.U. agricultural policy. Maintaining a level playing field among E.U. farmers is an objective of the CAP that has been neglected in the current reform. FEFAC now calls for a rapid agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework in order to provide the E.U. agricultural sector with more certainty.