EU farmers’ union calls for stronger CAP reform to stabilize food markets and farming sector

24 Sep 2024 --- European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), a confederation of farmer unions across Europe, is urging the revision of Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation in the upcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to secure food markets and reduce the monopolization of links in the food supply chain. 

The CMO is a key component of the CAP, as it allows amendment to rules related to the organization of agricultural products, including the rules on wine. It also helps equip support measures for remote regions while ensuring consistency with other CAP tenets.

Stabilizing food markets

ECVC’s recommendations to revise CMO include fair prices for farmers that cover production costs and regulate the volumes produced and placed on the market. The confederation also calls for a sharpened focus on stabilizing food markets by publicly managing buffer stocks and strengthening the crisis prevention and management policy.

Andoni Garcia, a member of the ECVC coordinating committee says: “We are making these recommendations in the context of the announced revision of the CMO by the European Commission in its paper on improving the position of farmers in the food supply chain.”

“ECVC supports the strengthening of Article 210b regarding sustainability, but it also provides concrete guidelines about how to go further to reach the EU’s food, climate change and environmental objectives, addressing what we now know is key: better prices paid to farmers. An ambitious revision of the CMO would allow major advances in terms of economic, social and environmental justice.”

ECVC calls attention to more robust import regulation to prevent the destabilization of food markets in third countries and reduce the consequences of monopolization of links in the food supply chain.

Agroecology and food sovereignty

The organization joins F&B stakeholders in calling for sustainable agriculture and support for agroecological farming practices to combat the devastating impact of climate change, which leads to unpredictable yields and requires the creation of stocks.

ECVC’s recommendations to revise CMO include fair prices for farmers that cover production costs.“The EU is about to elaborate its future CAP reform, and so this regulation is of utmost strategic importance. It is how we will achieve the Strategic Dialogue recommendation to ensure farmers’ incomes are based on good market prices and move away from area-based payments of CAP subsidies. The CMO contains many tools to make changes in this direction and needs to be strengthened,” says Morgan Ody, ECVC coordinating committee member and farmer in Brittany, France.

With the cost of living crisis and political instability affecting European buyers, the ECVC deems market regulation reinforcing food sovereignty necessary. This means letting consumers choose food and agricultural policies and prohibiting the dumping of products in third-country markets.

ECVC notes that farmer income is below the average of the rest of the economy in most EU member states, with 47% of average gross wages and salaries in the EU economy.

Therefore, the association urges the Commission to adopt reforms that can allow farmers to move freely on European territory and have better access to agricultural land and natural resources.

The recommendations come at a time when the debate about the future of EU farmers is advancing and is expected to shape the upcoming CAP reform, which presents an opportunity for the Commission to combine fairer agriculture practices and calls for more competitive food systems while being on track to deliver on sustainability and climate goals.

Meanwhile, the Commission recently authorized EU member states to pay higher advances of CAP funds to farmers to alleviate liquidity issues and mounting economic pressures. Farmers are eligible to receive over 70% of their direct payments in advance from October 16, compared with 50% currently.