Külügyi Szemle - A Teleki László Intézet Külpolitikai Tanulmányok Központja folyóirata - 2003 (2. évfolyam)
2003 / 2. szám - EURÓPA - Claus Juul Nielsen: Together in One Europe
Claus Juul Nielsen Denmark therefore would like the EU to develop a military capacity to carry out peace making and humanitarian tasks on the European continent, for example in the Western Balkans. At the same time we would like to give the EU's foreign policy coordinator as strong a position as possible. This is not a matter of strengthening the EU on expense of Trans-Atlantic cooperation. On the contrary we Europeans have a vital interest in close and strong cooperation with the US. It is not only in our interests, but also in the interests of the US that Europe to a higher degree stands on its own feet, makes its own contribution and solves its own problems. Judged by the policy of Hungary from the very first day of its membership of NATO, I think that we shall share many of these points of views when decisions on such a strengthening of the foreign and security policy will have to be decided. The mid-term review of the common agriculture policy The agriculture policy was designed in the 50th of last century and was based on the experiences from two world wars. The guiding principle was to secure supplies of food products in case of coming conflicts and wars. It was a policy designed to produce surplus by subsidizing the producers according to the sizes of their productions. After 1989 - if not before - it became obvious that this policy was outdated and that a new policy would have to be designed based on quite different principles, such as sustainable and environmentally feasible productions, development and modernization of the rural districts, maintaining a minimum income for residence in the rural districts not based on the size of production and respecting the EU's responsibilities towards developing countries. The present policy based on production implies that 80 % of the 40 billion Euro spent on agriculture every year are paid to the big producers especially the ones, who produce grain and oil seeds. It costs the consumers in the EU 20 % higher prices to say nothing about the substantial environmental costs. Together with the other industrial countries it means that all together 350 billons of USD are spent on agricultural subsidies and only 50 billions on development aid. My country therefore supports the proposal for a revision of this policy presented by the European Commission despite the fact that this policy is designed to cut the subsidies to the Danish producers as they are among the most efficient in the EU today. I do not yet know what attitude Hungary will take toward such a reform the day it becomes a member, but to my mind there are elements in the proposal, which is to the advantage of the agricultural sector in Hungary, such as financial support for rural development and maintaining of income for farmers not based on the size of production, 16 Külügyi Szemle
