A long misunderstood and misreported policy of the EU, the Common Agricultural Policy needs to be better explained, claims MEP Paolo De Castro. As new chair of the Agricultural Committee he is setting the record straight.

The Interview: CAP is easy as ABC for Agriculture Committee Chair

Paolo De Castro,   welcome to EuroparlTV.

You have just been elected Chairman   of the Agriculture Committee.

An important Committee,   for if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified,

it will have codecision   in agricultural matters.

It's an important and demanding role.   How are you going to handle it?

First of all, let's clarify   that agriculture and rural development

still represent more than 40%   of the EU economic resources.

Therefore this is   a huge responsibility.

Codecision, if the Irish referendum   of the 2nd October goes well,

gives this Committee   an extraordinary responsibility.

It's the first thing I said to my colleagues   in the Committee,

because probably we still don't realise   the full significance of this.

Not many people realise   what codecision means.

The Council will not be able   to make a decision

without the support of the EP's   Agriculture Committee.

It's a demanding role, and you find   yourself, at the beginning of term,

faced with this big hurdle,   the revision of the financial perspective.

As you said, agriculture absorbs   40% of EU budget,

the Northern, non-agricultural countries,   would like to penalise agriculture,

how do you intend to operate,   within the agricultural reform,

in order to keep   a large enough agricultural budget?

It's a difficult challenge. When Franz   Fischler did the reform in 2002,

the mid-term review,   he managed to make an important reform

with the budget guarantees coming   from the Franco-German agreement.

This time, the difficulty consists in dealing   first with the financial perspective,

and then with the reform   on the CAP content.

So you defend agriculture and talk of   other things.

Indeed. We must be able to explain   straight away,

why Europe needs a CAP.   - Why does Europe need a CAP?

A CAP is not only necessary   to the 10 million European farmers.

It is necessary to the 500 million   EU citizens. And this is the point.

Because if we want agriculture to be   good to the environment,

respectful of the wellbeing of animals,   mindful of food safety,

our consumers want safe, healthy   foods, they want a sustainable agriculture

with gentle farming   that defends the natural resources,

they want respect for the environment...

All this can only be achieved   through a Common Agricultural Policy.

And it was the 2002 reform that   connected funding coming through CAP

not to production,   but to farmers' behaviour.

This is central. Funds are allocated if   the behaviour complies with EU requests.

The CAP system, however,   receives a lot of criticism.

Some say that since it's not the   aftermath of war,

In order to guarantee quality,   we need modern agriculture.

But there's another argument:   the producers say, we get very little

but the final product is very expensive.

As an example, very relevant for you   as an Italian citizen - milk.

Milk costs 20-24 cents/litre, but a   European citizen pays up to €1-1.50/litre.

The Agricultural Policy   hasn't dealt with prices since 1992.

The difference between   production price and consumption price

does not depend   on the CAP interventions.

This needs clarifying, otherwise we keep   on, as some British newspapers do,

attributing an intervention on prices   to the CAP .

It's some US newspaper, perhaps.   - Some US newspapers, yes, indeed.

And then the Americans spend $77 billion   in their Farm bill...

With reforms we compete with the US.   - Yes. We might go back to this later.

But a price policy doesn't exist anymore.

The policy of direct funding addresses   incomes, but not, as in the past -

as you mentioned -   because there was a need to produce,

there was supply that   needed to meet a certain demand.

Decoupling was introduced   in order to satisfy the citizens' needs.

Going back to this big,   well, maybe not reform of CAP,

but let's say revision of the EU budget.

How will you deal with a negotiation which   will be very hard to defend the CAP?

In spite of the differences from 2002,   when Franz Fischler introduced a reform

thanks to the Franco-German   budget agreement,

what we must do is anticipate   the debate on contents.

As chairman of the Committee, I have   told my colleagues today,

let's launch a debate on why the CAP   exists, why it is necessary,

and what are the benefits   that the EU citizens gain from the CAP.

Let's do it straight away. I am   in the process of publishing a short book

to try and explain the CAP to the citizens,

and I will travel to European   capitals to explain it to the citizens.

Before tackling the subject of the budget,   let's try and understand

what the citizens want from the CAP,   and what the CAP can do for them.

There is an objective problem, though -   in hard times,

the financial crisis   that's not going away.

The EP is about to set up a small   committee that will deal with this crisis.

Since so far the miracle of the bread and   fish has only been performed by one man

there is this problem:   if we pull the blanket to one side -

that of innovation, development,   which are the objectives of the EU,

the Lisbon strategy that the Swedish   Presidency wants to relaunch,

I'll reply with a provocation.   If the CAP was better known,

when it came to facing this serious   economic crisis,

I come from the South of Italy, an area   that's suffering a lot because of the crisis.

Do you know where the workers   of the "sofa district" go,

those from Melfi, from Apulia?   They go and work on farms.

Agriculture has always been   a sort of reservoir for employment,

when industry could no longer guarantee   a salary to the workers,

agriculture acted   as a sort of social buffer.

Prices are awfully low,   CAP funds have been cut,

and therefore there is   no support for these workers.

We need the CAP   for these social reasons.