Jack Thurston | February 5th, 2010 - 11:20 am

The biggest driver for further reform of the CAP is budgetary. At a time when most governments are struggling with vast budget deficits, public expenditure is under pressure as never before. Policy-makers are looking for ways to trim budgets, to get better value for public money and to ensure that budgets are aligned with their most pressing policy priorities. Several years ago the commission initiated a ‘fundamental’ review of the EU budget and it is expected that this will set the scene for the debate over the EU’s finances from 2014 onwards. The views of member states are critical, as they hold the EU’s purse strings. James Clasper and I have this week published a new analysis of the views of member states on the EU budget and the CAP, based in part on their responses to the budget review consultation. As part of the analysis we created a typology of member states, with five categories: Gold Diggers, happy to reap the benefits of integration and let others pick up the tab; Misers, fans of budget discipline and a smaller CAP, but keen to claim compensation for their net balance deficits; Big Spenders, who want an ambitious budget but are prepared to pay for it; Modernisers, who want to keep the budget under control but also to simplify its structure and Fence-Sitters, quick to pay lip service to the idea of budgetary discipline, but still keen to maintain CAP spending levels.

Source:http://capreform.eu/does-the-cap-fit/

Posted: 17 June 2010 under Agribusiness worldwide, Europe.
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Swiss-held Alimenta Group, the shareholder of Expur Urziceni - producer of vegetable oil brand Ulcom, which last year entered the biodiesel market, will sell all vegetable oil and biodiesel production divisions held via Expur Urziceni to French giant Sofiproteol, but will retain 13,000 hectares of farming land in Galati county.

“Agricultural operations, which belong to some of the Expur shareholders are not included in this sale. Agricultural operations involved around 13,000 hectares in the Calarasi area, close to the Danube, where rapeseed, sunflower, wheat, barley, and maize are grown,” said Richard Radag, president of Expur Urziceni, without, however, revealing the name of the corporate entity through which the Swiss own these plots.

Alimenta Group started negotiations with Sofiproteol for the sale of Expur Urziceni - the biggest biodiesel producer in Europe, with 5.5 billion euros in turnover, with the due diligence process being close to completion. Representatives of Alimenta and Sofiproteol, which will be advised both by Romanian and French law firms, did not reveal the value of the transaction. However, sources from the industry say the French could pay between 60 and 100 million euros for Expur, making it the biggest transaction on the local vegetable oil market.

Source: http://www.mirzon.eu/news/june-2010/17-june-2010-3.html

Posted: 17 June 2010 under Europe, Romania.
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zech News Agency | 17 May 2010

Prague, May 16 (CTK) – Farms of foreign owners control more than 6 percent of the total Czech farmland area of 3.6 million hectares, weekly Euro says in its latest issue to be published on Monday, referring to data of the Czech Statistical Office (CSU).

There are over 378 farms controlled or partly owned by foreign entities which operate on nearly 230,000 hectares of Czech farmland, Euro says.

Foreigners acquired Czech land during a seven-year moratorium which the Czech Republic negotiated before its entry into the European Union.

Under the moratorium, which is to expire on May 1 next year, foreigners are banned from buying farmland and forests in the Czech Republic.

However, land can be bought by EU citizens which have lived and worked as farmers in the Czech Republic for at least three years, and by legal entities with foreign owners which are based in the country.

“From the total amount of 230 thousand hectares, 201 farms which are 100-percent owned by foreigners account for 28.6 thousand (hectares),” Jiri Hrbek from the CSU told Euro.

Foreigners have mostly set up limited liability companies in the Czech Republic. The remaining 177 farms controlling 201,000 hectares are owned jointly by Czechs and foreigners.

However, no statistics cover the area of Czech land which foreigners control based on an agreement on a future contract, waiting for the end of the moratorium when they will be able to legalise their ownership, Euro says.

Foreigners can also acquire land through intermediaries from the state-run Land Fund which is in charge of land privatisation. The fund has transferred around 500,000 hectares of land into private ownership so far.

“We don’t know to what extent foreigners participate in this,” Land Fund head Radim Zika said.

There is now around 270,000 hectares of land under the Land Fund’s management. The fund wants to privatise 53,000 hectares of land this year and 140,000 hectares early next year.

The Czech Republic negotiated the seven-year temporary ban on the purchase of land by foreigners during its entry in the EU to gain time to resolve restitution claims and enable local citizens to acquire land first.

Czech left- and right-wing political parties disagree over whether the Czech Republic should seek to extend the moratorium, as was done by Hungary and Slovakia, for example.

The leftist Social Democrats (CSSD) are in favour of extending the moratorium, while the rightist Civic Democrats (ODS) and TOP 09 are against the extension.

Via: http://farmlandgrab.org

Posted: 20 May 2010 under Agribusiness worldwide, Europe.
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