So, it's farewell then Mariann Fischer Boel

Farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel says goodbye to Brussels: Boel

I think she's done a reasonably good job, not as good as Franz Fischler, but he was a hard act to follow and whoever came after him was going to have to consolidate and deal with the unfinished business. I am sure that sorting out the unreformed sugar sector required a lot of determination and energy and used up political capital.

The farm commissioner is constrained by the political forces surrounding her and you need to be both a strategist and a wily tactician to change anything. Franz Fischler was both and he also seized a window of opportunity which may not repeat itself now that food security has become a dominant discourse.

Fischer Boel steps down

Mariann Fischer Boel has confirmed that she is to step down as farm commissioner, citing her age (66) and the wish to spend more time with her family. An assessment of her time as commissioner can be found here: Boel

The race is now on to succeed her. Ireland has already thrown its hat into the ring, although no name has yet emerged. A successful Irish candidacy would not assist reform.

Will Fischer Boel stay or go?

Agra Focus is still 60 - 70 per cent positive that farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel will step down. At 66, the attractions of retirement from a demanding role might seem clear. Manuel Barosso, the Commission president, would like her to stay as he thinks she is a skilled negotiator. The Danish prime minister, Anders Rasmussen, would also like her to stay to give the Danes a key portfolio.

If she does go, there will be more uncertainty about the future direction of policy. Romania is reported to be pushing for the agriculture portfolio and is receiving backing from France and Poland on the basis that a Romanian commissioner would be more resistant to a genuine reform of the CAP. Moreover, the favoured candidate, former Romanian farm minister Dacian Ciolos studied in France, has a French wife and is a personal friend of former French farm minister Michel Barnier.

However, would a candidate from a new member state with a large and inefficient agricultural sector really be favoured when CAP reform is on the agenda? Nearly 30 per cent of the Romanian population is employed in agriculture, more than five times the EU average. Another problem is tha at some stage the Commission will have to start investigating how Romania and Bulgaria have been implementing CAP aid schemes since they joined the EU in 2007. Their record in relation to the SAPARD scheme for pre-enlargement funds was none too good.

So perhaps the choice could again fall on a smaller northern member state like the Netherlands?

Re-education for Commission officials

On a visit to China a few years ago I met an elderly professor who had been sent with his students to the countryside during the Maoist period for 're-education' by the peasants. He struck a deal with the local peasants that allowed them to work on their books two days a week.

Now farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, a large-scale farmer with her husband in Denmark, has decided that Commission officials in DG Agri need re-education. She considers that they are too detached from farmers and don't understand their problems.

The so-called Harvest Experience programme means that all agriculture staff will be sent to stay on farms from 2010. One goal is to encourage Commission officials to use simpler language.

It will be interesting to see where the farmer hosts are found from. I suspect that many of them will be drawn from farmer organisations and will have an axe to grind.

Historically, DG VI as it once was had a reputation of being particularly close to farmers. Its head official was always drawn from France and was usually close to large-scale French grain interests. Many of the officials were French and those Brits who worked there were usually Francophiles. One compensation was that it was said to have the best canteen in the Commission.

The Kinnock reforms ended the French domination at top level. Mind you, a lot of nonsense still comes out of DG Agri. A British academic was telling me about a talk given to students by one of its officials. He claimed that the livelihood of one person in five in Europe depended on the CAP. He worked this out by adding up those working in farming, those in food processing and those in input industries.

It was pointed out to him that it would be possible to have a healthy and competitive food sector in Europe without subsidy and protection.