France and Ireland are agricultural powerhouses in the EU. However, their responses to the war in Ukraine and impact on global food production are very different. While Ireland continues developing policy to restrict dairy output, French president Emmanuel Macron, in calling for a summit of EU leaders, said: “We can no longer depend on others to feed us, care for us, inform us and finance us.”
The war in Ukraine is going to fundamentally change world energy and food markets. During this transition, energy and food security in the EU will face unprecedented challenges. It is therefore not tenable for the policy direction at EU and national level simply to remain the same in what is a completely changed world.
CAP concerns
Are the objectives of the new CAP, to be implemented within months, still aligned with tackling the challenges facing EU food production? Our tillage farmers, on whom we will rely most, will face the biggest hits in CAP support. To ask the question is not to ignore the need to reward farmers for environmental dividends but to challenge the policy of supporting both food security and environmental objectives through CAP without increased funding.
Worryingly, as Stephen Robb reports this week, the European Commission appears to be trying to stretch the CAP even further. While the move to ramp up biomethane production is welcome, comments that it is to be funded through the CAP are concerning.
The CAP must not be used to pay for a failed EU energy policy in the absence of a significant increase in its overall budget.
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