The Agriculture and Rural Development Committee (AGRI)

AGRI, unsurprisingly, deals with major issues concerning agriculture throughout the EU. Unlike ENVI, AGRI does not enjoy powers of co-decision but only of consultation, making it less directly influential.

AGRI deals with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), legislation on safety, quality and supply of agricultural products, veterinary and plant-health matters, animal feed stuffs, forestry and rural development.

As part of the EU’s ‘Agenda 2000’, rural development is now being officially prioritised alongside farming as the second pillar of the EU’s agricultural policy. Environmentally sound production methods, high standards of animal welfare, and food safety and quality are the stated priorities in this area.

The emergence of BSE in the late 1980's was a key development for European Agriculture policy. The epidemic reached its peak in 1992, when 36,680 cases were confirmed. Unjustifiably British beef was banned from France, and much of the continent, for 10 years (the ban was only lifted in 2006)!

Robert led a march in Paris to compaign against the French ban on British beef

In 1999 I led a march up the Champs Elysees to campaign against the French ban on British beef and got arrested for my pains!

As a former Conservative Spokesman on AGRI who got into politics through my involvement with the Young Farmers and the NFU I have been involved in a number of controversial reform packages which have gone through AGRI.

The reforms to the Sugar Protocol in 2005, which I helped set up in the 1970s, was a case in point. As a former sugar beet farmer I understood that sugar needed to be reformed but that the European Commission's proposals were not the way to do it. I joined farmers from across the EU, including many from the Eastern Region, and marched through Brussels in the summer of 2005 to protest against these proposals, which threaten livelihoods not just in Europe but also in some of the poorest countries in the world in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Despite our appeals, and recommendations made by the committee in the EP, the Commission exercised its legislative power and passed these destructive cuts.

While I was disappointed that both the Parliament, and the wishes of my constituents, were ignored over sugar we have had a number of successes. Registering locally produced goods and improving animal welfare conditions are areas where the European Parliament has had a direct impact on issues that matter in the Eastern Region.