Commissioner: ‘Strategic dialogue’ sets stage for future farming subsidies programme

The Commission’s strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture – set to launch in January – will help set the course of discussions on the shape of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), according to Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski. 

Addressing EU agrifood stakeholders at the EU executive’s agricultural outlook conference on Wednesday (6 December), European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen confirmed that the long-awaited dialogue, which she unveiled back in September to foster “more dialogue and less polarisation”, will be launched in January.

This will involve the full range of agrifood actors, “from small traditional producers of organic food to large wheat producers,” the president said. 

While von der Leyen did not give details of the agenda, she presented some questions that will be central to the discussions ahead. 

This includes ways to support rural communities and ensure a fair standard of living for them, as well as supporting agriculture “within the boundaries of our planet and its ecosystem”.

Maximising the use of knowledge and technological innovation and how to promote Europe’s future food system “in a competitive world” were the other two key questions that von der Leyen set out as guiding questions for the dialogue.

A third CAP pillar? 

Meanwhile, according to Wojciechowski, the conclusions of the dialogue will pave the way for the debate about the future of the CAP, which will start after the EU elections in June 2024 with the new legislative mandate. 

“We need the arguments for a stronger budget (…) 0.3% of GDP is not enough,” Wojciechowski told journalists on the sidelines of the conference, adding he hopes that this dialogue “will give [an] important signal for member states because the budget is decided by [them]”.

Wojciechowski also said that the agricultural reserve – a €450 million tool to offer extra support to farmers in exceptional times – was “not up to the scale of the problems” facing the EU. Instead, he called for a “common intervention policy”. 

“We need such [an] instrument in the CAP budget”, he said, which, according to the Commissioner, would look “something like [a] third pillar” for crisis intervention. 

Currently, the CAP comprises two main items: direct payments to farmers, which, together with market-related expenditures, form the so-called first pillar, and support for rural development, considered the CAP’s second pillar.

Calling for a reinforced budget for crisis intervention, he said he hoped the strategic dialogue “will be helpful to achieve this goal”. 

The ‘working name’

The Commission’s decision to centre the initiative only on agriculture has come under fire from some stakeholders who called instead for a more inclusive ‘food systems’ approach.

“We need to look at the entire food system, from production to consumption, and engage commercial actors such as food processors and retailers,” reads a letter sent back at the announcement of the dialogue by umbrella organisation, the EU food policy coalition. 

Asked by reporters whether the name should be broadened, Wojciechowski agreed that the strategy should consider “not only agriculture”, adding that the chosen title was a “working name”. 

“That’s the title of this dialogue, but of course, it is impossible to discuss only directly about agriculture,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the conference, arguing the need for “synergy” in our system. 

However, he maintained that agriculture is the “first and the most important part of this system”. 

[Edited by Natasha Foote/Alice Taylor]

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