Romanian pleases agriculture committee

Commission candidate did not emerge from hearing as a champion of reform, but he showed a mastery of detail.

Dacian Cioloş, Romania’s candidate for the European Commission, today managed to wow members of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, demonstrating in his nomination hearing that he has been dealing with the intricacies of the Common Agricultural Policy for the past 12 years and has experience of farming dating back before that.

Cioloş will, though, have disappointed reformers and budget disciplinarians – but such MEPs are hard to find on the Parliament’s agriculture committee.

Back in November, when the portfolio was allocated to Cioloş, there was surprise that someone from a country with a poor record of managing EU funds had been entrusted with a portfolio that receives the second-largest share of the EU’s total budget. But today Cioloş showed fluent mastery of the detail of the EU’s agricultural policy, as well as astute judgment of the political forces at play – qualities all the more important at a time when the appetite for ambitious reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has all but disappeared and has been superseded by concern about protecting farmers and their incomes.

Cioloş spoke mostly in Romanian but switched to decent French and reasonable English when MEPs asked questions in those languages.

In the eyes of MEPs, he started well by welcoming the changes introduced by the Lisbon treaty giving MEPs full co-decision powers over agricultural policy for the first time. “With Lisbon, you are now fully involved in decision-making on this policy. I will build my strategy by taking into account his new reality,” he said. He praised the committee’s members as representing the diversity of European agriculture, which he wanted to preserve, he said.

In his answers, Cioloş steered a careful, balanced course between stressing the role of the market and need for measures to protect against market failures. “It’s not my intention to go for liberalisation willy-nilly. We have to use it to make agriculture more competitive,” he said.

He stressed the importance of protecting farmers against price volatility, but said this should not involve reverting to old-fashioned market-management mechanisms. “We cannot afford a crisis that will affect the stability of entire sectors or that can result in a drop in farmers’ incomes,” he said.

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Quizzed repeatedly about the recent problems faced by dairy farmers, he ruled out reversing the decision to abolish milk quotas. Quotas protected against supply fluctuations, he said, but not against fluctuations in demand, which had been behind recent problems in the dairy sector. He said he would consider new instruments to make conditions more stable for farmers, such as income guarantee funds.

Fact File

DACIAN CIOLOŞ

Agriculture

Nationality: Romanian

Political Affiliation: EPP

Previous job: head of committee on agriculture

Age: 40

Stooping to conquer
Cioloş was not above flattery. Welcoming the full co-decision powers MEPs have gained over agricultural policy with the Lisbon treaty, he pledged: “I will build my strategy by taking into account this new reality,” and he praised the committee’s members as representing the diversity of European agriculture, which he wanted to preserve. 

In need of inspiration
Ulrike Rodust, German Socialist MEP: “Towards the end of the session it’s hard to come up with new questions.”
Cioloş: “As it’s difficult to come up with new questions, it’s hard to come up with new answers.”

He also faced questions about the power of large retailers and the relative weakness of producers, to which he responded by saying he was in favour of boosting the negotiating position of farmers. He promised to speak to his colleague due to be in charge of competition policy, Joaquín Almunia, about possible exemptions from competition rules to help producers.

Crucially for MEPs, he promised them that he would fight to maintain the share of the EU’s budget for support for farmers and rural areas. “If it were just up to me, I can assure you we would have a lot more money,” he said. He promised that he would come up with new criteria to decide how direct payments are allocated to ensure a fairer distribution among member states and farmers. When asked to follow up with more precise details, he declined, saying that he would work with MEPs on new criteria.

Summing up, Paolo de Castro, the Italian MEP who chairs the agriculture committee, said: “We were very pleased with your replies.”

Cioloş received a loud and extended round of applause from MEPs, making it clear that the next commissioner for agriculture will be Romanian.

Performance at hearing