European Parliament resolution on the situation and perspectives of young farmers in the European Union (2000/2011(INI))
Date: 2001-01-17
Institutions: Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, European Parliament
Subjects: common agricultural policy, early retirement, farming sector, investment aid, investment promotion, policy on agricultural structures, price of farm land, rural development, sustainable development, young farmer

18.9.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 262/153

Wednesday 17 January 2001

10. Young farmers in the Union

A5-0357/2000

European Parliament resolution on the situation and perspectives of young farmers in the Euro-
pean Union (2000/2011(INI))

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to the study commissioned by the European Parliament which was completed in April

2000,

(cid:1) having regard to Rule 163 of its Rules of Procedure,

(cid:1) having regard to the report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the opinion

of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport (A5-0357/2000),

A. whereas farmers, and especially young farmers, constitute the social group which will provide the
future basis for the common agricultural policy and, if their activities are not promoted, farming
would eventually be abandoned; whereas they also perform a very important role in the social life of
villages and rural communities, promoting and maintaining the countryside and contributing to the
economic, social and environmental needs of the community,

B. whereas Articles 32-38 of the EC Treaty provide for the implementation of a common agricultural

policy (CAP), which remains the foremost and biggest of the Community’s common policies,

C. whereas young farmers are undergoing severe economic difficulties, which are exacerbating problems
of rural depopulation, desertification, decline in rural areas, as well as social and cultural problems;
whereas the principle of subsidiarity means that only certain aspects of these problems come within
the competence of the European Union; whereas complementary action by the EU, Member States and
applicant countries is necessary to confront these problems affecting the long-term future of young
farmers,

D. whereas the European Union must address the problems of young farmers, of rural depopulation and

of regional disparities in terms of social and cultural life,

1.
Points out that there has been a continuous fall in farm holdings over the last decade, with the
steepest decline (28 %) being experienced by farmers under the age of 35, and that the number of young
farmers as a proportion of farmers is declining in nearly every Member State;

2.
Regrets that various EU Member States do not make use of the measures the European Union has
put in place for young farmers; given the importance of young farmers in terms of innovation and renewal
in agriculture, calls on the Council and the Commission to put an end to this situation;

3.
Notes that the chief problems faced by young farmers in the EU and applicant countries are high
installation costs, uncertain economic prospects, the lack of availability of farms, problems in training and
the general administrative burden, as well as the general problems of the economic malaise and the pub-
lic’s poor image of farming;

4.
Draws attention to specific problems stemming from land sale and rental prices, high cost of machin-
ery and farm improvements, legal and fiscal barriers to new entrants, as well as the more general problem
of decline in many rural areas, leading to degradation of the infrastructure and social life as well as rural
depopulation;

Points out that high installation costs lead to high indebtedness amongst young farmers, at a time

5.
when their prospects of a reasonable income from farming are poor;

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6.
Points out that high agricultural land costs are influenced by EU-dominated factors such as the level
of subsidies, quotas or other limitations on production and direct payments and also by the negative
effects inherent in certain EU schemes, which can encourage speculative gains for commercial interests
outside the farming sector; points out further that high land costs are influenced by nationally imposed
factors and are likely to continue to be a feature of agriculture in the coming years unless steps are taken
to identify and rectify contributory factors where possible;

7.
Points out that there has been no thorough evaluation of EU measures either by the Member States
or the Commission and believes that this deficiency should be reviewed urgently; calls on the Commission
to undertake a rigorous and detailed evaluation of existing support measures for young farmers and to
submit the relevant report next year; points out in this respect that the Committee on Agriculture and
Rural Development of the European Parliament proposed increasing the budget line for the year 2001 in
order to provide funds that could partly be used for an evaluation and inter-country comparison; stresses
the urgency of this in view of the 2002-2003 spending review;

8.
Suggests therefore that a comprehensive database be set up on the economic and social situation of
young farmers in the European Union, into which data on the situation of young farmers in the applicant
countries and the situation of women farmers should also be entered; calls on the Member States to make
the relevant data available;

9.
Calls on the Commission to develop a statistical system capable of recording the age and number of
farmers taking retirement, the age and number of young farmers setting up and the sectors concerned, in
order to create an instrument for forecasting retirements and business set-ups in the agricultural sector;

Takes the view that the EU should consider making it mandatory for the Member States to provide

10.
minimum levels of installation aid to young farmers;

Calls for installation aids and supplementary investment grants to be increased and, in view of the
11.
long term nature of farming investments, to be made available for a minimum of eight years after setting
up; such investment aids should be further enhanced where there are tangible environmental benefits or
where the farm is situated in a structurally less-favoured area that may contain deserted villages or hold-
ings that have been abandoned owing to a cessation of activity, and where young farmers could revive the
rural economy by developing new agricultural products of regional interest, repopulating the countryside,
and increasing employment;

12.
Calls also for Member States to reserve a certain proportion of their production rights and quotas
for young farmers; takes the view that Member States should also ensure that production rights are trans-
ferred from non-producers to young farmers; Member States and the EU should also target the necessary
measures and aid in particular at young farmers in countries and rural areas that are structurally disadvan-
taged owing to the ageing of their population;

Calls on the European Union, together with the Member States and farming organisations, to boost
13.
their efforts to assist young farmers wishing to set up in business and to offer comprehensive advice on
the choice of sector, investment, schemes, taxation, laws of succession, etc.; also calls on farming organisa-
tions to actively promote farming as an occupation in the context of careers advice at schools and higher
educational establishments;

14.
Considers that, since eligibility for aid has been extended to include young part-time farmers, the
Commission should reallocate sufficient resources to Article B1-401 of the Union budget (setting-up of
young farmers);

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15.
Believes that the early retirement provisions of the EU should be improved, particularly in the case
of farmers who pass on their farm to younger farmers, enabling them to create economically and socially
viable units, and that further schemes should be considered to improve the incentive to retire; in addition
the early retirement provisions should be regularly reviewed in the light of the various rates of inflation in
different Member States; believes further that older, retired farmers should be permitted a degree of invol-
vement which utilises their experience and protects their self-respect, without jeopardising their entitle-
ment to the provisions of the scheme;

Considers that, in respect of any form of aid provided, where investments are made by young farm-

16.
ers, incentives must be provided in the form of lower interest rates;

17.
Stresses that it is important that the benefit of the interest rate subsidy should go to the young
farmers involved rather than the bank through which it is paid; calls for clear guidelines on interest rate
subsidies to be established in this respect, which require the banks to demonstrate transparently that the
interest rate subsidy is not contributing to their calculation of the interest rate applied;

Asks the Commission to examine the feasibility of all alternative methods of assisting farmers,
18.
including the use of rural credit guarantees, especially for young farmers, and to encourage alternative
schemes, such as the development of organic production, agri-tourism and rural tourism, a source of
wealth in many rural areas of the Union where tourism is a mainstay of the economy and contributes to
sustainable and lasting development;

19.
Calls on the European Union, in the context of equal opportunities, to encourage Member States to
adopt fiscal measures aimed at developing the role of young women farmers, and in particular at support-
ing them during maternity leave and in bringing up farming families;

Urges the Commission to continue to promote sustainable, high-quality agricultural production, not
20.
only by enhancing existing mechanisms, such as designations of origin and support for organic farming
and indigenous breeds of livestock, but also by creating specific support mechanisms for regional products
of special quality as a way of creating agricultural markets with high value-added and ensuring new invest-
ment prospects for young farmers;

21.
Urges the Commission to use every possibility afforded by the rural development pillar and by the
Structural Funds to supplement Member States’ efforts to support the creation and maintenance of basic
infrastructure and a network of good-quality public services and to boost local and regional markets as a
way of combating the depopulation of rural areas, ensuring adequate conditions for investment in the
least-favoured rural areas and making it more attractive for young farmers to set up; points out that cul-
tural initiatives to facilitate social life and promote education create an environment which is more con-
ducive to young people remaining in rural areas and becoming involved in farming;

Believes that there is scope for developing schemes whereby both the established and the young
22.
farmer work together to develop the farm, each providing a combination of experience and innovation;
points out that schemes such as share farming, (where the established farmer provides land and capital
while the young farmer provides skills and labour) can be successful; points out, however, that such
schemes can only be developed where there is a regulatory framework which ensures that neither party
will be exploited by the other;

Notes that it is important for Member States to take steps to ensure that institutional landowners

23.
give preference to concluding leases (cid:1) albeit on equal terms (cid:1) with young farmers;

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24.
Stresses the importance of further education and training, in order to raise the level of qualifications
and skills applied to farming and considers that such skills must be geared in particular to the vocational
training of women whose livelihoods are in rural areas; believes that the EU should fund programmes for
farmers relating to the latest developments in the market, as well as new and alternative techniques; stres-
ses also that all forms of education, including computer courses, which meet standards recognised in the
Member States, and are provided by colleges, as well as courses run by private or state bodies, should be
eligible for this funding;

Stresses the importance of the development of the use of computer technology and the internet,

25.
particularly in the context of the e-Europe initiative;

Considers that the Commission’s Directorates-General

26.
for Agriculture and for the Information
Society must undertake to study and submit to the European Investment Bank (EIB) a special investment
programme for the acquisition and use of new information technologies and to make available appropriate
funding in the context of the European Social Fund, for continuing education programmes; considers that
the EIB, for its part, must undertake to set up a special ‘young farmers’ information desk’ as part of the
Innovation 2000 initiative or to strengthen any such facilities that exist and are geared to new techno-
logies;

Calls on the Commission to bring together in a single document all existing and future measures

27.
designed to help young farmers;

28.
Emphasises the importance of continued rural development schemes which have considerable ben-
efits for the rural community as a whole, and benefit the agricultural sector in particular, and urges the EU
to include rural development in the sectors to be reviewed in 2000-2003 so that assistance to young
farmers will be the key element of rural development; calls on the Commission to study the feasibility of
establishing new Community initiatives targeted specifically at young farmers;

Proposes that, in order to counter farming’s general loss of image and raise awareness amongst the
29.
general public of the problems associated with agricultural policy, public information campaigns on farm-
ing be included amongst CAP information measures, as well as an initiative for informing school pupils
about studying agricultural sciences;

Points out that EU enlargement will necessitate changes in the farm structure of the applicant coun-
30.
tries and in the way the CAP will operate; demands that the requirements of young farmers be given
priority by all concerned in the context of the overall limit of Sapard, which was fixed at the Berlin
European Council;

Believes that the EU should encourage applicant countries to target investment aid to young farm-
31.
ers, and introduce early retirement measures; believes that the EU should allow these countries to pay
higher levels of installation aid during the immediate post-accession period;

32.
Considers that the Union should encourage, through its Socrates and Leonardo programmes, mea-
sures to strengthen education and training facilities for young farmers and allied trades and professions, in
order to raise their skills to the required level, so long as adequate additional funding can be made avail-
able;

33.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission.