THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

- considers that the agri-food sector is of strategic importance for Europe and that a coordinated food and agriculture policy in the European Union is more necessary than ever;
- considers it essential to maintain the Community preference in order to secure Europe's food independence and security;
- considers it necessary to develop effective tools that make it possible to stabilise prices and manage production, in order to ensure the stability of farmers' incomes;
- considers that an overhauled agricultural policy must abandon any unfair treatment in the arrangements for supporting different types of production and different regions;
- calls for historical references to be abandoned and proposes, beyond the minimum environmental requirements for obtaining the first level of aid (single payment by hectare), that those production systems and practices that do most to preserve the environment and natural resources be encouraged and promoted through specific additional support;
- considers it essential for European public subsidies to take into account employment on each farm;
- considers that a more integrated strategy at an appropriate level (for example, mountain ranges and islands) for regions with permanent natural handicaps is necessary if the potential of these territories is to be fully realised and the added value of European intervention is to be developed;
- also calls on the European Commission to define more precisely the relationship between rural development policy and regional and cohesion policy in order to ensure coherence of measures of the same nature carried out in the same area;
- considers that the involvement of the regional level is becoming essential, even though a European and national framework is still needed;
- considers that the Common Agricultural Policy must, for the period 2014 2020, be given a consolidated and reinforced budget that is up to the challenges and issues to be addressed.