Photo credit Andy Hay
Politicians are skilled in the art of compromise. And yet we all know the truth about compromise – it satisfies no one. Our European institutions, namely, the Council(of Ministers from across the EU), Commission and Parliament, are now in the middle of trying to reach a compromise agreement on how to reform the Common Agricultural Policy. The outcome is likely to be one that everyone can just about live with but which falls way short of the many aspirations for this highly complex, and expensive EU policy.
Change, as history demonstrates, comes slowly in the realm of agriculture policy; reform moves at glacial pace. There are bureaucrats and lobbyists who have spent whole careers doing nothing else! Indeed the first policy paper(which I confess to being involved with writing) the RSPB published on this subject was in the early 1980’s.The tragedy though is that the challenges these reforms must address are moving apace –much faster than the speed at which policy responses are introduced. Whether it’s environmental challenges such as rapidly declining farmland biodiversity, climate change or diffuse pollution or challenges such as improving the competiveness of agriculture and encouraging new entrants, the CAP’s response always seems to be too little, too late. This round of reforms probably will result in a CAP of a slightly greener tinge and in a somewhat more equitable distribution of funds between and within Member States. But these are minor adjustments compared to what’s needed given the crisis facing wildlife across the EU.
Whatever the EU compromise struck, probably towards the end of June, one thing is certain. The large amount of flexibility that Agriculture Ministers across Europe are calling for to enable them to respond to national and regional needs, will be core to the agreement. The Common Agricultural Policy looks less ‘common’ by the day. The upside of this will be the opportunities it gives to those Ministers who wish to be bold and forge new paths, within the framework of the regulations. Will Scotland’s Richard Lochhead be one of the bold ones?
Scotland is well ahead of the game in thinking about how to implement a new CAP and some of the options the final agreement is likely to contain – the Cabinet Secretary, Richard Lochhead, is to be applauded for this. The only problem is, we’ve started to think about modes of travel before we’ve decided our destination. Knowing where we want to go to will determine whether it’s better to go by bike, car or train and which route to take! Ambition is likely to be constrained by the resources available, especially to fund management to protect and restore our wildlife. Scotland still has rich wildlife resources in its High Nature Value Farming Areas .But those who care for this heritage face many challenges.
The decisions taken in the next 6-12 months will decide the path we set off on and the destination we reach by 2020. This is incredibly important, for it will determine what legacy we leave future generations. Will we stand then and look across Scotland’s rural landscape and see we took the right decisions? Will our communities be prosperous and invest time and energy in protecting landscapes and the finest wildlife sites? Or will we find ourselves back ploughing the same old furrow and wondering why so little has improved, and why wildlife continues to disappear from the countryside? Now is the time for vision and a clear statement of what we want the future of agriculture - and the natural environment it depends on - to look and be like. Investing in landscapes and wildlife-is not a peripheral luxury-its what taxpayers across Scotland, and the rest of the EU so evidently want. Can our politicians think about the longer term and deliver the means to do it?