Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Times have changed

As farm commissioner Franz Fischler pushed through a reform of the CAP against resistance from member states. However, in an interview with Agra Focus he indicates that in the changed environment of co-decision such a strategy is no longer feasible.

Asked whether the plans put forward by current Commissioner Dacian Ciolos went far enough, Fischler commented that the plans were rather vague and went on to say, 'I accept that under the new circumstances, under the way decisions will be made in the EU with the co-decision procedure, one cannot do what we have done in the past - that is to say come forward with a big surprise, a big reform, where everybody is against this reform at the beginning. This doesn't work anymore so one has to find a different approach and in principle I think the approach of Ciolos is the right one, but how far can you go?'

Fischler is a candidate for the post of director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization which is perhaps not as influential as it once was and needs a strong hand at the helm to revive it.

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