Farm lobby seeks unity

Date: 27/02/1997

By Simon Coss

AS THE recent tractor blockade in central Greece and countless headline-grabbing protests in France have demonstrated so graphically, Europe's farmers are not backward in coming forward when they feel their vital interests are being threatened.

Even though many critics argue that the Common Agricultural Policy amounts to paying thousands of farmers billions of ecu to produce mountains of food Europe does not need, it is a brave politician who dares to take on what is generally seen as one of the continent's most formidable lobbying forces.

But all is not as it seems. On closer examination, it becomes apparent that there is anything but a common lobbying approach from the sector covered by the Union's most infamous common policy.

“There is a real danger of fragmentation within our organisation. More and more, our members are thinking about problems in their own member states. We must try to find one common goal. I do not even know if we can, but we must try,” said one top official at the farmers' representatives' European umbrella group, COPA/COGECA.

The organisation - which acts on behalf of 9 million of the EU's farmers and 33,000 agricultural and fisheries cooperatives - is still reeling from the impact of a damning report by Peter Pooley, a former European Commission director-general who took over temporarily at COPA/COGECA last year following the resignation of Secretary-General Daniel Guéguin.

Pooley said that while staff at the organisation were of “excellent quality” they had suffered “defective leadership”, and concluded that “a change of culture will not be easily made, but it must be done”.

A new secretary-general and president are set to take charge of the organisation in March and officials are praying that they will be able to provide it with a much-needed sense of direction.

One of the basic problems facing the pan-European lobby is the different social and economic status farmers have throughout the various member states.

In the UK, for example, they tend to be politically Conservative, wealthy landowners with no real culture of radical protest. British farmers are usually very much part of the 'establishment'.

But in France, there are many more small-time farmers with nowhere near the resources of the British 'agri-barons' and with a strong tradition of vigorous political action.

Similar cultural contrasts can be found between other member states, a situation which is reflected in the apparent inability of COPA/COGECA to agree on what it wants.

“Some of our organisations want to take positive action while others prefer to wait for a proposal from the Commission and react to it,” said one official.

Indeed, the rot may already have set in. Increasingly, national farmers' organisations are setting up shop in Brussels and dealing directly with the European institutions.

“COPA may on the face of it have a huge membership, but none of its member organisations agree on anything. That is why it comes up with so few proposals,” said an official at the CPE, a pan-European group which aims to fight specifically for the needs of the Union's smaller farmers.

But even if COPA/COGECA is not firing on all cylinders, critics argue that it must still carry some clout.

“Do they have an undue influence? The continuing lunacy of the CAP is the best answer to that,” said an official from the Consumers in Europe Group.