Proposal to Boost Farm Aid to Poor Countries still Uncertain

Brdo pri Kranju, 27 May

The European Commission's proposal to use unspent EU farm aid to help farmers in developing countries buy seeds and fertiliser, has been received coolly by the bloc's agriculture ministers, who said at a meeting in Slovenia on Tuesday that the EU should instead boost long-term aid on agriculture.

The money earmarked for agriculture that the EU does not spend is normally returned to national budgets, but the agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boell, has proposed that it be spent to buy seeds and fertiliser for farmers in developing countries.
"We have been looking at a more direct link between EU agriculture and agriculture in developing countries, to help them be able to feed themselves," Fischer Boell said today. "It's a much more long-term prospect that just sending food aid."
Yet the ministers instead called for greater long-term aid spending on agriculture. "We have to make sure we put agriculture at the top of the international agenda. If there is money available...it might be better to use it for projects structured around several countries," said the French minister, Michel Barnier, whose country takes over the presidency of the EU in July.
"Solutions are needed, but what is needed even more is a structural approach to this issue," added Slovenian Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc, who chaired the meeting at Brdo pri Kranju.
Just as the agriculture ministers were conferencing in Slovenia, their colleagues in charge of development reaffirmed in Brussels the EU's plans to increase development aid to 0.56% of GDP by 2010 and 0.7% by 2015. This translates to about EUR 66bn in 2010, according to some estimates.
In addition to helping farmers in developing countries, the EU is also facing calls to help its own, in particular fishermen, who have been hit hard by soaring prices of diesel.
"A European response is necessary," said Barnier, who suggested that one solution might be to raise the ceiling for aid to fishermen. He said this and other proposals would be debated in the coming weeks. Jarc added that Slovenia was for example already drawing up a decree to aid this troubled sector.

Proposal to Boost Farm Aid to Poor Countries still Uncertain

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