The agriculture of the future will be subjected to a public consultation
	13/04/2010
	The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, has announced the launch of a public consultation on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The aim is that all citizens and organizations interested in the EU have the chance to participate in a debate on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, express their level of satisfaction and suggest reforms that could be undertaken in order to adapt it to future challenges. In this line, the Commissioner Ciolos has pointed out that “the Common Agricultural Policy is not only a matter for specialists, but also the policy for all Europeans. That is why it is so necessary to listen to citizens’ opinion and to focus on collect all the ideas and expectatives from them”. All the opinions that are collected through this public consultation will be taken into account by the European Commission in order to prepare the future reform of the CAP, which is foreseen to be approved in 2013. This reform intends to adapt the CAP to the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, among them achieving an intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth, and answerin to the new challenges of society, particularly those regarding economic, social, environmental, climate and technological aspects. All those citizens will be able to leave their opinions and contributions through this web site http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/cap-debate, that will be open until next june 2010. Once all the contributions are collected, the European Commission will organize a conference that will summarise the public debate. From this conference, the EC will take out solid ideas that will be used to write a paper on the reform of the CAP. This paper will be presented at the end of this year.  Further information: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/cap-debate