Future of EU farm policy debated in Brussels

Preview and reports of a European Commission conference held in Brussels, 19-20 July 2010 on how to reform the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

Roughly 600 delegates from all over the EU came to Brussels to discuss the future of the CAP after 2013. The conference sought to debate and draw some form of conclusions from the public debate launched by the Commission in April 2010, based on four very fundamental questions:

- Why do we need a CAP?
- What do citizens expect from agriculture?
- Why reform the CAP?
- What tools do we need for the CAP of tomorrow?

The exchanges will form a useful platform for discussion before the Commission drafts its Communication on the future of the CAP, due for publication in November 2010.

To accompany the Conference, there was also a fair in the centre of Brussels highlighting the diversity of Europe's quality agriculture products, where each member state had a stand offering some of their national specialities to the general public.

European Commission: Press Release: IP/10/958: Conference on CAP post-2013 to build on success of public debate http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/958&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: DG Agriculture and Rural Development: The CAP post 2013 Conference, Brussels, 19-20 July 2010 http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/cap-post-2013/conference/index_en.htm

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