Ensuring sustainable food production and a fair income for European farmers in the face of market, environmental and climate challenges

Section:

Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment (NAT)

Rapporteur:  Arnold PUECH d'ALISSAC (FR-I), Piroska KÁLLAY (HU-II) & Joe HEALY (IE-III)

Reference: Exploratory opinion at the request of the Polish Presidency

Context: Ensuring sustainable food production and a fair income for European farmers in the face of market, environmental and climate challenges

Key messages:

In this opinion, the EESC:

1. Puts forward recommendations to achieve a competitive, crisis-proof, sustainable, knowledge-based and farmers-centred agriculture, especially at time of growing crises. The existing CAP instruments are not sufficient to deal with the increasing challenges that farmers have to face, and this opinion provides a number of tools and keys to secure farmer's income (such as public insurances against natural disasters) and improve their bargaining power, while also tackling existing dialogue issues ("decisions on farmers with farmers!"). 
2. Suggests including counter-cyclical aid and targeting of direct payments in the CAP instruments after 2027 to tackle the significant pressure that the agricultural sector is experiencing from the markets. In addition, the EESC supports the establishment of mutual funds that also exist in some Member States, as a complement to other schemes and which can be funded collectively by farmers, downstream operators, Member State regions and Europe. Financial tools offered by banks for farmers in difficult crisis situations, should also be examined.
3. Highlights the need to restore the CAP budget to a realistic level of 0.5% of EU GDP in the next multiannual financial framework (MFF), to ensure equivalence of standards in all trade deals to protect farmers from exposure to competitive disadvantages caused by international trade deals with third countries, and to take more into account carbon leakage.
4. Feels very strongly that below cost selling should be seriously considered in order to protect and maintain farmers across rural Europe, thus allowing them to continue to be custodians of the environment while also producing top quality food, and ensuring food security in the most regulated, transparent and safest conditions in the world.

Date of the section meeting:  29 January 2025

Results of the section meeting vote: 51 votes in favour, 0 against and 0 abstention.