Bid to end split over rural policy

Date: 17/09/1998

By Myles Neligan

EU AGRICULTURE ministers will meet in the Austrian countryside this weekend to explore ways of bridging the north-south divide which separates them over proposed changes to EU rural development policy.

Proposals for reform drawn up by Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler are designed to stimulate the rural economy by establishing alternative activities to farming.

But southern member states, led by Spain, argue that the proposed measures would impose an unacceptable extra burden on that part of the EU agricultural budget earmarked for traditional market support measures.

Under the plan, rural development funding for the Union's poorest areas would be transferred from the guidance to the guarantee section of Europe's farm budget. This would swallow up to 2.4 billion ecu of guarantee section money every year which would otherwise be reserved for farming subsidies.

The European Commission argues there is enough leeway in the blue print to pay for this, and says rural areas will benefit from plans to concentrate funds more closely on the regions which need it most. But it has so far failed to win over the doubters.

There is also considerable opposition to Fischler's plan to leave responsibility for major rural development spending decisions to national governments, with farmers objecting that different national priorities will lead to uneven rural economic growth across the EU.

“The Commission absolutely must establish common rules for the whole sector. The present approach will open the door to serious distortions of competition,” said a spokeswoman for EU farmers' association COPA.

Officials hope that ministers will make progress on resolving their differences at this weekend's informal meeting, which begins on Saturday (19 September).

“There will be no substantive decisions, but informal meetings often allow for more open and creative discussions which may point the way towards a solution,” said a Council of Ministers official.

In their discussions on ways to encourage alternative economic activities to farming, ministers will consider how to promote forestry as a viable source of income for the rural economy. The Union spends nearly 500 million ecu per year to aid foresters, chiefly through an incentive programme for farmers who convert some land to the cultivation of trees.

The accession of Sweden, Finland and Austria to the EU in 1995 has greatly boosted the profile of forestry as a rural industry in the Union.