Ensuring fairness of food prices and fighting against speculation in this sector as well as putting in place measures to encourage young people to start their career in agriculture, must be two of the key priorities for the future CAP. This was the main conclusion put forward by the European Parliament at the debate held in plenary session on the future of CAP.

In their report presented to the European Parliament's plenary session on 19 january, MEPs highlighted the need for the future CAP to safeguard food security for all citizens. Keeping a dynamic Europe rural sector, increasing competitiveness of agriculture and ensuring the continuation of agricultural production across the EU, are to be key priorities which must be considered in the future policy.

The Parliament reaffirmed its claim of actions to ensure fairness in the food market and stressed that the new CAP should ensure fair access to food supplies as well as affordable products. Ensuring fairness and transparency in the food supply chain must therefore be key measures for that purpose.

Alongside these measures aimed at ensure fairness of food prices, the Parliament also stressed the need to implement measures to encourage young people to strar a career in the agricultural sector in order to ensure the future of EU agriculture. This is a urgent need as it is estimated that only 7% of European farmers are under 35 years and nearly five million will retire in the next ten years. These would include measures such as installation premiums and subsidised interest rates for loans.

Food speculation, a worldwide problem

Price stability and fairness of food market are not only a problem at EU level, since it is estimated that nearly half the recent price hikes in food were due to speculation speculative behaviour. For that reason, the Parliament supports the review of existing legislation on financial instruments, demanding greater transparency in negotiations and endorsing the initiatives taken in this field by the G-20 Presidency.

In Parliament's point of view, operators who trade commodity derivatives should be only those with legitimate interest in protecting agricultural goods against risks, and be differentiated from other financial derivatives.

MEPs also proposed the creation of a specific global food reserves to reduce hunger and regulate commodities prices. This system would be managed by a joint body controlled  by the United Nations or the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). MEPs called on the Commission to undertake urgently a study on the most effective way to establish this scheme.