Brussels Notebook: Brexit failed to deliver move away from the ‘green diktats’

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It is positive that the Executive has launched a £46 million fund to support investment in the food industry.

This will be operated through Invest Northern Ireland and while the fund sounds big, the cost of remaining globally competitive is expensive. The decision by the Executive is a reminder that the food industry is the corner-stone of the local economy – the biggest private sector employer, a major exporter and a proven, successful innovator.In economic terms the food industry ticks a lot of boxes. It adds value to an indigenous product, from local farm businesses and makes full use of our easy access to UK and EU markets. This investment is a reminder that a key industry is built on a competitive, productive farming industry that delivers the quality products every day the food industry needs to succeed. It achieves this despite efforts across the UK to link farm support to perceived green outcomes, rather than successful food production. Brexit has failed to deliver the move away from the so-called “green diktats” of the EEU and the CAP. Instead we have greener support structures than ever because the penny has never dropped with politicians than green outcomes do not have to be manipulated – they can be a natural by-product of producing quality food from a productive industry.The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen – generally dubbed VDL – has won a second five-year term in the post, securing a majority in a secret vote in the European parliament. This should be good news for farmers as she has embraced the need to respond to protests by changing the CAP to make it a simpler, less bureaucratic structure. She is also an enthusiast for European food security.She will be presiding over a new and potentially fractious group of commissioners from the EU’s 27 member states. Problems are already mounting. She will face the challenge of the far right’s growing influence over French politics, including demands for France to weaken its links with the EU. She also faces the challenge of maintaining unity over support for Ukraine, with this brought into sharp focus now because Hungary, with its pro-Putin prime minister, Viktor Orban, is driving policy during its six-month term in the rotating EU presidency.The approval of VDL by the European parliament will bring some much needed stability to the EU. She has her critics, but is generally seen to have been successful in her first term. That brought many challenges, including Ukraine, Covid and the fallout from the implementation of Brexit. Big as those were the challenge now of holding the EU together will be even more challenging.One group pleased to see VDL continuing in her role is the European farming lobby, led by the umbrella organisation COPA. It developed a strong relationship with the Commission president as the farm protests spread across Europe. It convinced her to buy into the challenge of solving the problems highlighted by farmers and rural communities. It was no surprise COPA was to the fore in welcoming her reappointment, urging her to continue work on the plans for agricultural reform she launched.She now has a strong mandate to lead the new Commission that will be in place in October in the direction she believes is right for Europe. That guarantees continued support for Ukraine, but the bigger battle will be the division in the EU from key countries having right wing governments opposed to traditional liberal thinking from Brussels on issues such as EU expansion, ethics, trade liberalisation and migration. There will be days ahead when VDL will wonder why she was so keen to secure the job.The relationship between COPA and VDL is interesting. It convinced her to see that something needed to be done for farmers to counter the pressure for regulation to make the industry less productive and less globally competitive. COPA persuaded her to praise the “daily contribution” of farmers to food security for Europe through the challenging times brought about by Covid and then by inflation in input costs and food prices. This was an important recognition from the top for a group that often feels their contribution to society is at best taken for granted and at worst forgotten. She also pledged to do more to return to the founding principles of the Treaty of Rome that set up the EEC by working to end the social and financial divide between urban and rural areas.

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