Today, on the occasion of the conference "The CAP: have your say!" presenting the results of the consultation on the future of the common agricultural policy (CAP), PAN Europe reiterates its call upon the European Commission to encourage one serious long term objective of the CAP: development and maintenance of low impact farming systems in all parts of the EU.
PAN Europe restates its concerns noted in its recent reflection paper “Why the CAP is broken on pesticides?” questioning in 12 points how The CAP is broken on pesticides, starting by questioning the logic of a CAP where taxpayers’ money is paying the highest direct payments per hectare to Member States with the highest sale of pesticides per hectare.
“Farmers are keen to be a part of the solution, and not part of the problem: it is therefore more than time that we build on the fact that Ecological Focus Areas now being pesticide-free to seriously start encouraging farmers to work with nature, rather than against it. It is time to move from killing to managing pests, and in this way ensuring the needed transition towards low-input farming” says Henriette Christensen, PAN Europe Senior Policy Adviser
PAN Europe also urges the European institutions and national policymakers to use the principles presented in the Civil Society Statement on the Reform of European Agricultural Policies “Good Food, Good Farming – Now!” as basis for the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy reform process.
Contact: Henriette Christensen, Senior Policy Advisor, PAN Europe, Henriette [at] pan-europe.info, Tel: +32 2 318 62 55
