The Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, has said that a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will make European agriculture more competitive.
Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Mr Prodi insisted the Commission was not attempting to make farmers' lives more difficult.
"In future, farmers will produce the crops or livestock that the market demands, not those that attract the highest subsidies. The farming industry will be more competitive as a result. Our intervention measures will become a genuine safety net that protects EU producers from extreme price fluctuations," he said.
The Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, acknowledged that some Irish beef producers were likely to produce less as a result of the reforms. But he argued that Irish farmers could benefit from changes to the subsidy system.
"The money will remain within the agricultural sector but will be redistributed. Those farms, including in Ireland, that wish to produce better-quality food could receive more," he said.
Mr Fischler told the European Parliament that the CAP needed "a complete makeover" to ensure it served the interests of farmers, consumers and taxpayers. "The Commission has come to the conclusion that the CAP must be changed, not only to make it more in tune with modern-day society, but just as importantly to better meet the needs of European farmers," he said.
The Commissioner claimed that farmers would benefit from the abolition of red tape surrounding the subsidy system and that the most enterprising would flourish. He said the current system of subsidising production regardless of demand had brought the entire CAP into disrepute.
"A support regime characterised by production-distorting incentives that encourage farmers to use the most intensive methods possible and smothered in red tape, with production directed by the straitjacket of subsidies rather than market demand, is one that risks losing the support of European taxpayers. Such a scenario would certainly not be in our best interests and most definitely not in the interests of our farmers," he said.
The Commission's reform proposals, called a "mid-term review", must be approved by the 15 EU governments before it comes into effect. EU agriculture ministers will discuss the proposals in Brussels on Monday but negotiations are expected to continue at least until next spring.
Mr Fischler stressed his reform proposals respected the financial framework agreed by EU leaders in Berlin in 1999, which remain valid until 2006. And he insisted the reforms were in keeping with the spirit of the Berlin agreement, known as Agenda 2000.
"The EU needs a competitive farming sector that is kind to the environment, provides consumers with safe, high-quality food products and guarantees farmers a fair income. As it stands, however, the Common Agricultural Policy cannot meet these goals. So we cannot afford to take a 'wait-and-see' approach - we must take action now to reform policy," he said.
