Europe needs to start dreaming bigger about the future of farming, according to Agriculture Commissioner-designate Janusz Wojciechowski.

In a wide-ranging interview that touched on topics ranging from trade to pesticides, the former Polish jurist and MEP told POLITICO the bloc must stop thinking about agriculture within the confines of the EU’s seven-year budget blueprint and start planning decades in advance. That’s why, if confirmed as agriculture commissioner, he plans to introduce goals stretching to 2050.

Click Here: Cheap FIJI Rugby Jersey

“So far, we’ve been talking about the future of agriculture in a seven-year perspective. We need to look at the future of agriculture with a vision that will reach even 2050, like we do with climate and energy policy,” Wojciechowski said.

“There’s no such strategy on agriculture and I’ll feel fulfilled in this function if we achieve such a vision after these five years.”

The strategy would outline, for example, the number and size of farms needed in EU agriculture in the future, and a plan for how to keep young people in the countryside.

Though the 64-year-old currently works as a member of the European Court of Auditors, he’s no stranger to the agricultural world: Wojciechowski was raised in rural Poland by a farming family and started his career in politics in the Polish Peasants’ Party. He also served as vice president of the agriculture committee during his 15 years as a member of the European Parliament.

Still, Wojciechowski said that his nomination this week for the agriculture commissioner job was “a surprise” even for him, but he agreed to it because he “would like to do something good for European agriculture.”

“I know and have a feel for the work in the field. It’s something that can’t be learned, it’s something that you have to personally experience to understand farmers,” he said. “It’s easier for me to understand farmers’ problems than for other politicians who don’t have such personal experience.”

One of his biggest challenges as commissioner will be stalled talks on plans to reform the EU’s mammoth farm subsidies scheme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). EU countries have so far struggled to find common ground on the proposals, introduced by outgoing Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan, and Wojciechowski expressed some doubt about whether the reforms will be ready for the next budget cycle, beginning in 2021.

Instead, he said it’s likely there will have to be a “transitional” arrangement implementing the current system until legislators can agree on the new CAP. But he doesn’t advocate for completely throwing out Hogan’s proposals and starting from scratch.

“We should work based on the proposals that are already there, but take into consideration different voices concerning some changes,” Wojciechowski said.

Challenges ahead

Wojciechowski still faces a grilling in the agriculture committee as part of the process to be confirmed as commissioner, currently penciled in for October 7. He could face some hurdles there because of his links to Poland’s ruling PiS — a party that has clashed with the European intuitions on many occasions — but also because of an ongoing investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud office, over which Wojciechowski said his conscience is “clean.” 

CAP reform will no doubt also be a major topic for MEPs, but given his prior experience on the committee dealing with the topic, Wojciechowski says he understands MEPs’ concerns.

“I know what it looks like, how much emotion there is in the discussions,” he said.

Wojciechowski said the biggest challenge he sees is making sure the new CAP is “green.” He wants the new CAP to be more sustainable but says he knows it can be difficult to convince farmers to change their methods.

“I expect some resistance to the changes, I expect these will be difficult talks, but I think it’ll be possible to convince the farmers … that a turn towards a greener CAP could be beneficial for them,” he said.

Such measures will depend, among other things, on the next seven-year budget plan, which hasn’t been finalized yet. Many EU countries argue it’s not fair for the Commission to raise the bar on environmental measures for farmers when the current budget proposal would shrink the CAP.

“I hope that the CAP budget can … help to fulfill environmental and climate targets. We’ll discuss if that’s achievable with the funds that have been foreseen for now,” he said.

Another challenge is making CAP funding more equitable across the bloc. Brussels pays farmers in many Central and Eastern European countries a lower subsidies rate compared to farmers in the west because of a funding formula that accounts for cheaper land and labor costs. The Commission’s proposal aims to balance payments through a process known as external convergence.

“Differences of subsidies among member states … have to be decreased,” Wojciechowski said. “I wish it wouldn’t be one country paying for another country. We’ll have to balance different perspectives.”

He added that it’s important for the CAP to be fair not only across EU countries but also within them. He said that the proposal to limit subsidies to €100,000 per farm, known as capping, has raised “political emotions.”

“In my opinion, the solutions that decrease the disparities among the smallest farms and the biggest ones are justified,” he said.

“There’s room in the EU for all kinds of farms, the big ones can exist as well, but we need to protect the small ones so they can have their place. There’s a chance for them in healthy, ecological, eco-friendly production.”

He also noted that the direction of travel on pesticides was clear. “We need to reduce pesticide usage,” he said. “We need to do everything to make agriculture healthier … We can think about what measures need to be taken to achieve that: to what extent we should implement bans, and to what extent the tools that encourage … pesticide reduction.”

Wojciechowski added that any decision on prolonging the herbicide glyphosate’s approval will be a subject of “in-depth analysis.”

Doing his homework

If confirmed as agriculture commissioner, Wojciechowski says his first order of business will be doing his homework. That includes launching an analysis of the impacts of EU trade deals on agriculture, in particular the recently agreed EU-Mercosur deal. European farmers have voiced fears about how competition from cheaply produced Latin American meat will impact their bottom lines under the agreement, which still needs to be ratified.

“The Mercosur [deal] requires a precise analysis,” Wojciechowski said. “I will start my term by gathering everything we know about the potential effects of Mercosur … I’m afraid not all the effects have been evaluated so far.”

He said his team would also have to look into pesticide use by Mercosur countries to ensure EU standards will be met.

More broadly, he plans to conduct a thorough evaluation to “diagnose” the state of European agriculture, including studying how things have changed over the last decade, such as the number of farms in the EU, the number of cultivated fields, and the ages of farmers across the bloc.

“I want us to have solid knowledge of what the situation of EU agriculture really looks like,” he said.

Wojciechowski explained that some political circles don’t truly understand agricultural issues and are “under the impression that farmers are doing really well, that they’re privileged because they get big help from the EU … and that they have more than they deserve.”

“I don’t have such an impression. I think that the real situation of farmers is much worse than the imagined one.”

Wojciechowski said this work will help to inform his work on reforming the CAP.

One thing that his past work as an MEP and member of the Court of Auditors taught him is that CAP obligations can be pitched as an opportunity rather than a burden to farmers. He cited as an example the Court of Auditors’ work to encourage improvements in controls for animal welfare, which he said was his proudest achievement.

“Animal welfare doesn’t have to be seen as an additional burden to farmers, but as an opportunity … EU funds can be spent on the voluntary actions of farmers which improve animal welfare. The court showed that it wasn’t used enough,” he said. “I think that in the new CAP … we’ll be able to expand these possibilities.”