Mandelson: Farming subsidies need reform
The system of farming subsidies and import tariffs in the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy is “unsustainable” and needs reform, Britain’s European Commissioner-designate Peter Mandelson said today.
Mr Mandelson said persuading his fellow-commissioners of the need for change would be one of the key challenges of his trade brief, which he takes up at the start of November.
He was speaking as showbiz personalities including actress-turned-singer Minnie Driver, Irish rockers The Thrills and R&B diva Jamelia spoke out for reform of international trade to assist poorer countries at an Oxfam-organised concert in London.
Mr Mandelson told Channel 4 News: “The agricultural model of Europe has done a lot to sustain agricultural livelihoods and the rural way of life and compatibility between rural and urban ways of life.
“But, equally, I am absolutely sure in my mind that the Policy, for a whole variety of different reasons, has to change, because it is in everyone’s interests it should change.
“I am equally sure that financially it’s unsustainable.”
Mr Mandelson acknowledged he would face resistance to the UK’s long-stated aim of reforming CAP.
France, whose farmers benefit particularly handsomely from the policy, has blocked change in the past.
“I am a firm supporter of reform and change, but you will understand I have to carry my colleagues in the European Commission with that objective,” said Mr Mandelson.
“That is one of my responsibilities and one I fully intend to fulfil.”
Oxfam is calling for richer countries to remove barriers to imports for all low income countries and an end to the practice of attaching conditions to IMF-World Bank loans which is says forces poorer countries to open their markets regardless of its impact.
