With EU leaders meeting in Brussels to hammer out a deal on reform of the bloc's entire budget for the seven years to 2020, concerns have been raised within the European fresh produce business that proposals tabled by European Council president Herman Van Rompuy will adversely affect the competitiveness of several major fruit and vegetable suppliers within the EU.
Rompuy's proposed Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) would apparently entail a further six per cent decrease in the EU agricultural budget, on top of the EU Commission's own plans to limit Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) spending.
CAP continues to be as divisive an issue among EU members as it was 40 years ago, when the UK joined the then European Economic Community and quickly found itself to be the free market counterpoint to France's pro-subsidy, pro-farming loyalty.
At €49.3bn a year, it now stands as the largest slice of the EU budget pie but as such remains under intense pressure from those within the union that regard it as an oversized remnant of anti-competitive, protectionist economics.
For those in fresh produce powerhouses like Spain, France and Italy, however, the budget represents not only a valuable financial support mechanism – insulating their industries, they argue, from cheaper competition outside the EU – but also, they say, a unifying force that avoids the mess of 27 separate agricultural policies.
'The CAP has made a major contribution to the construction of Europe and helps to maintain 40m jobs mostly in EU rural areas,' said a spokesperson from the European federation of agricultural cooperatives Copa-Cogeca.
Copa-Cogeca has been particularly vocal in its support for what EU President Barroso said about CAP reform recently and his insistence that separate policies would cost the EU's 27 members far more.
'Have we really thought what would happen if there was no CAP and if we had a fragmented market in Europe with 27 different national agricultural policies?' he questioned ahead of this week's EU Summit.
On Thursday, the annual fruit and vegetable producer organisations conference ICOP 2012 heard from Marc Rosiers, vice-chairman of the Copa-Cogeca food chain working party, who painted a bleak picture for the sector should the proposed MFF be implemented.
'Van Rompuy's proposals for the reformed 2014-2020 budget are full of bad news for farming,' he warned. 'Subsidies will go down. We need a market that is correct and fair and remunerates farmers.'
Speaking elsewhere, Copa-Cogeca secretary general Pekka Pesonen said maintaining the present CAP budget was essential.
'This is more important than ever in a world of increasing uncertainty, market volatility and rising global food demand.
'The proposals from the President of the Council on the future EU budget 2014-20 would cut EU farm spending to unacceptable levels, at a time when farmers are already being squeezed by high production costs which often do not even cover market prices.'
