Appointment of new EU commissioner welcomed by farming bodies

Published on Friday 27 November 2009 21:39

DACIAN Ciolos, a former Romanian minister for agriculture, is to be the new EU agricultural commissioner. He still has a formal process to complete but yesterday his name was firmly in the frame.

As with the rest of the new commissioner team, Ciolos will face scrutiny at a hearing in the European Parliament early in the New Year before he is officially approved as agriculture commissioner for the next five years.

NFU acting director-general Martin Haworth welcomed the fact Ciolos, who had the active support of France and a number of the more recent members of the EU, was one of very few commissioner candidates with agricultural experience. "That is something that will be vital when looking at the agenda ahead especially in terms of the Future of CAP debate. He picks up the five-year mandate at a crucial time for our farming members with major decisions soon to be made on the future structure of the Common Agriculture Policy and the EU budget."

James Withers, NFUS chief executive, also commented on the new commissioner's experience and added that this was the first time a new member state had taken the agricultural seat and that he would certainly bring a different perspective to the job.

Withers hoped NFUS would establish as good a working relationship with the new man as they had with his predecessor Mariann Fischer Boel, and he hoped the Union would meet him early next year.

The invitation to come to Scotland was also picked up by SNP MEP and member of the European Parliament's agriculture committee Alyn Smith, who has written to invite him here.

Smith said: "This part of the commission is of huge importance to Scotland's farmers with remit over EID, animal transport and pesticides.

Certainly I would expect that he will have a good appreciation of the difficulties faced by peripheral areas when it comes to the logistics of animal transport."