PAC meetingIn an informal meeting, European agriculture ministers have confirmed that “no hay PAC-exit” after the departure of UK EU.

European Agriculture Ministers launch the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) at the heart of the political debate with an informal meeting focused on redefining its role in a future Europe 27 without the presence of the United Kingdom.

Summoned at the castle of Chambord, in the middle of the Loire Valley, by the French owner, Stéphane Le Foll, The meeting outlined a common position that defended that the CAP is an integral part of the community project and must be preserved with financial means at the level of aspirations.

“There is no PAC-exit”, summarized the French representative at the end of the conversations, in which Spain did not participate, Italy, Croatia, Finland, Portugal, Holland and Latvia, for political or agenda reasons, nor Great Britain, that was not invited.

The appointment was not intended to draw binding conclusions., but to nourish the European debate and evaluate the different points of view before the Bratislava summit next day 16, in which the master lines that the EU must follow after the British abandonment will be established.

With the horizon set on 2020, and at a time when the resources of this future CAP will begin to be discussed, the ministers concluded, in the words of Le Foll, that it is necessary to “do a lot of work to simplify its application, maintain its coherence and give it more flexibility”.

They also agreed that the CAP faces major global challenges, food or environmental, that must be anticipated and make it desirable for this policy to be linked to others such as energy.

In that line, They found that it must have tools that allow farmers to overcome these challenges, and pointed out the need to analyze how to better guarantee the distribution of value in the agricultural chain, because that group is the one who endures the main blows.

This quote “is a first step, "There is a long way to go.", summarized Le Foll, with the hope that there will be initiatives similar to this in the coming months.

His German counterpart, Christian Schmidt, He added that agriculture is “at the core of the economy.”, It's not something sentimental.", and that this discussion wanted to demonstrate that after “Brexit” it is possible “not only to talk, but to decide on the common future”

The holding of this meeting in Chambord was not coincidental: the impressive castle that served as headquarters, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, allowed to revalue French heritage, and its location is in the heart of a large agricultural region, especially affected by the floods last July.

Three working groups, chaired respectively by Luxembourg, Ireland and the Czech Republic, addressed how the CAP can be at the service of a common European project in a globalized world, What is your place in that Europe 27, and the challenges that lead to competitive agriculture.

High security deployment, with gendarmes, police and emergency services, blocked access to the premises for more than a hundred protesters belonging to different agricultural groups.

Your presence there, according to Andoni García, member of the executive of the Spanish Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG) It constituted above all “a wake-up call to the ministers” in the face of the current crisis in the sector.

“We ask for regulation in favor of fair prices for both farmers and consumers.”. “The aid policy is insufficient and is failing”, Garcia explained., who traveled from Spain to join the protest of his French counterparts.

He called for “a new CAP aimed at a social and sustainable model, that is being destroyed at the service of the elites, of industry and distribution. A CAP of 2020, concluded, that “it must take a turn”.