About the UFU in Brussels
Among a myriad of other proposals, the EU is currently drawing up plans to reform the £50 billion a year CAP to ensure more ‘balanced, targeted and sustainable support’. It is also drafting regulation which could ease the path for farmers to cultivate genetically modified crops – a controversial technology with huge potential. And in the face of more free trade agreements (which are also negotiated from Brussels) it is devising country of origin labelling laws to enable consumers to choose where their food comes from. It is our job to shape these proposals, and others, to allow UK farmers to be productive, competitive and prosperous. We do this in several ways.
Our first port of call is always with the European Commission. The Commission, essentially the EU civil service, initiates all policy proposals. We meet and consult with high-level Commission officials to help them develop proposals that best reflect the needs of UK farmers.
Our next step is to influence MEPs whose job is to scrutinise and amend the Commission proposals. The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty last year (2010) sparked a huge power shift in the EU to give MEPs equality of power with EU farm ministers on all agricultural law. This makes our expertise even more valuable to MEPs who don’t have the luxury of a civil service. We have strong links with key UK MEPs from all parties and they regularly turn to us for advice. Our suggested amendments will often form part of the European Parliament's final position paper and when it comes to voting through legislation we will ensure MEPs know exactly what UK farmers want. It is important to point out here that farmers also have a real ability to influence the content of European policy by engaging with their local MEPs and arranging farm visits.
The Agriculture Council - made up of agriculture ministers from 27 member states - is the third institution involved in making EU law. In general the experts in our Westminster office will lobby the Defra ministers from home, however, we do have strong links with Defra's advisors in Brussels and we meet regularly to discuss policy.
Given that the CAP is the biggest common policy in the EU, farming is always going to be the subject of heated debates and divergent opinions. There are those that think UK agriculture would be better off without the EU, however, European civil servants and politicians are often far more sympathetic to agriculture than their British counterparts - the UK Government is not known for its love of the CAP! It is easy for farmers to poke fun at Brussels – the home to EU regulation on bendy bananas and curvy cucumbers – but this quirky Belgian capital outstrips even Westminster in its strategic importance to UK farmers and if we failed to engage our industry would be left behind.
Updated August 2011