THE “EUROPE 2020 STRATEGY” RECOGNIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CAP.

The European Council held in Brussels has finalized the launch of the Europe Strategy 2020, which replaces the Lisbon Strategy, and that aims to contribute to Europe emerging stronger from the crisis.

The conclusions of the European Council include a direct reference to agricultural policy: “All common policies, including the common agricultural policy and cohesion policy, will have to support the strategy. A sustainable agricultural sector, productive and competitive will make a great contribution to the new strategy, considering the growth and employment potential of rural areas, while ensuring fair competition”.

Without a doubt, the objectives of this “Europe 2020 Strategy”, will mark the debates on the new financial perspective framework for the period 2014-2020, which are currently in their initial phase.

Agricultural organizations understand that the support given to the CAP must be taken into account in these debates and grant agricultural policy a stable and sufficient budget so that the agricultural sector can emerge from the crisis in which it is immersed..

The success derived from the inclusion of the CAP as one of the fundamental axes of future community policy, confirms the need to give the food producing sector the strategic character, with the double objective of ensuring citizens the supply of food at reasonable prices and guaranteeing an acceptable level of income to European farmers and ranchers.

This need is even greater when we see that other countries (EE.UU., Japan, Australia, etc.) day by day they increase support for their agricultural sector, something that makes fair competition with our products difficult, indicate the organizations..