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The European Union is adapting to the Lisbon Treaty. The priorities of the Spanish Presidency and the interests of Romania
Download the report in .pdf here
The Romanian Center for European Policies (CRPE) continues the series of reviews about European politics and policies with a new report on the short term priorities of the European Union. CRPE’s experts analyze the priorities of the Spanish Presidency in the new European institutional framework created by the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The report presents the plans of the Spanish government and the ways in which Romania may relate to them. CRPE’s analysis underlines the fact that the Spanish presidency will create important precedents: because the treaty is vague on some points, a clearer division of the tasks between the new position of President of the European Council and the rotating presidency should emerge in practice in the following months. In what concerns the new structure of the European Commission, the report notes an increase in the number of Commissioners dealing with external issues that occurs simultaneously with the arrival of the new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Another change in the composition of the Commission, the merger between Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy portfolios, may be a good signal for Eastern countries, including Moldova, a country of interest to Romania. However, the report argues, it would have been preferable to make a clearer distinction between the Eastern area (“European neighbors") and north Africa and Middle East (“neighbors of Europe").
The report looks at the way several Spanish priorities might impact Romania:
- The coordination of policies for economic recovery
- The launch of the "Europe 2020" strategy, the successor of Lisbon Strategy, where Romania has serious backlogs
- Policies concerning the labor market (the report discusses at length the concept of flexicurity and Romania’s place in some social models concerning the adaptation of the workforce)
- the Energy sector
This is the second CRPE report that analyzes a rotating EU Presidency after the first report concerning the Swedish was launched in summer 2009.
This report is part of CRPE’s project Romania as an active actor in EU debates and is financed by the Soros Foundation Romania under the Foreign Affairs Initiative program.
Let's be reasonable
– Romania and EU`s Climate Change targets –
Download the report in .pdf here
As global negotiations take place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and governments agree to costly commitments and seek opportunities, Romania has to become a serious, credible player. On one hand, Romania has to meet in the upcoming years its obligations as EU member, obligations which will cost both money and efforts to build consistent policies that help reduce GHG emissions in several sectors. On the other hand, depending on how we negotiate our position in the EU, we could obtain funding for investments in energy and other sectors: an opportunity which would allow us not only to reduce emissions, but also to produce more competitive energy.
This report examines Romania’s position in the global debate and reaches two main conclusions: we must be more modest and yet pragmatic abroad, and we must meet our existing obligations with the help of consistent policies at home.
First, so far Romania has not pursued consistent policies and positions in the EU, although the commitments we already accepted are very costly. Romania`s position in the EU is not important enough to shift the balance in reaching an EU-wide consensus or to influence significantly the achievement of a legally binding agreement in Copenhagen. Therefore, our main goal should be to make the most out of a scenario that we can barely influence. Instead of proposing ambitious targets that we cannot achieve, we should stick to feasible options. It is recommended, therefore, that Romania have a clear to build alliances around the position currently held by Polish and other Eastern European countries.
Second, we must follow consistent policies to meet the obligations we already are bound by, in the EU’s “20-20-20” strategy. This means that we should maximize the leverage of existing financing sources and pass on to other sectors the experience with energy-efficient projects undertaken so far. For this, the World Bank recommended the establishment of an institutional actor to facilitate the transfer of know-how across sectors and coordination of energy-efficiency measures, within the existing organizational framework (that is, without creating additional structures or bureaucracy).
The following report details the current international agreements and negotiations that generate opportunities and risks for Romania; the costs of Romania's existing commitments, assuming that no agreement will be reached in Copenhagen in December; and also provides two examples of inconsistent policies: AAU trading and thermal rehabilitation of buildings.
26 November 2009
Conference: Future of the Common Agricultural Policy – opportunities and challenges for Romania – Friday, 20 November 2009
The EU project “Further support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development to strengthen the agricultural policy adaptation” together with the Romanian Center for European Policies and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands organized the conference Future of the Common Agricultural Policy – opportunities and challenges for Romania that took place on 20 November 2009 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest.
Involving a large number of stakeholders, the conference aimed to bring into debate the future of the Common Agricultural Policy and to analyse the challenges of CAP for Romania. During the event CRPE presented and discussed its latest report on the CAP.
For more details about this event and the presentations made during the conference please check the Events section of the website.
Two extremes don't make one right.
Romania and the Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU
Click here to see the report in .pdf
The report shows that Romania has a farm population five times bigger than EU level and double compared with the next country in line, but the average size of the farm places the country in the opposite extreme, alongside small countries such as Cyprus or Malta.
Romania has actually two agricultures, without any relationship between them and with divergent objectives and requesting different policies:
I. Subsistence agriculture –micro-farms which exist for self-consumption
2.6 million households in Romania own under 1 hectare of land.
II. Agro-industrial agriculture - made up of farms with hundreds or rather thousands of hectares.
9600 households own over 100 hectares
Middle level agriculture is underdeveloped
Middle farms (between 10 and 100 ha) work only about 12% of Romania’s agricultural area. Meanwhile, the subsistence agriculture hides a huge social problem, poverty and real unemployment. The average level of income from agriculture was seven times smaller in 2007 that the income earned on average by an employee. This means that one in two farmers lives in a household under the poverty threshold.
What does CAP`s subsidies mean for the two agricultures of Romania? A strong concentration of payments in the category of very large farms. Thus, in 2008, 0.2% of farms took in 30% of the CAP subsidies allocated for Romania. If we also include the farms in the category 100 – 500 ha, the result shows that 0.9% of farms received 51% of subsidies.
Land subsidies could aggravate land concentration at the extremes into very large farms and very small ones, a situation which could have very serious long term social effects. For the 30% of the population involved in agriculture the ideal situation would be that young and enterprising families to concentrate the land into middle farms where several generations would make a decent income (Polish case and, to a less extent the French one) and not to work on big farms payroll.
Recommendations:
This report proposes:
- The strategic reorientation on the part of Romania towards supporting middle-scale agriculture (20 – 100 ha), which would ensure productivity growth as well as lifting the rural population out of poverty. Maintaining support for very large farms will only lead to a South American model, with several thousand large farms in the middle of generalized rural poverty.
- The continuation and integration in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of certain national programs (The Farmer, Life Annuity) which could provide incentives to gather small lands into middle-scale farms
- Romania should renounce its opposition to the limiting of subsidies received by very large farms. Farms which have thousands of hectares are economically viable anyway and do not depend on subsidies, and the sums they receive suffocates the development of middle-scale agriculture, the only chance Romania's giant agricultural population has to get out of poverty over the middle and long term.
- Orientation toward development of CAP's Pillar II (rural development). Romania is favored by the current distribution of funds, which is orientated toward rural development in the poor states of the East. But we should not take this distribution as granted but instead we need to ensure that our objective in the post-2013 CAP reform is maintaining the sums designed for rural development.
October 2009
The Aftermath of the 2009 Elections in Moldova: The Challenges of Four Bleak Scenarios
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CRPE’s affiliated expert, Florin Nita, analyzes in this policy brief how the political deadlock in Chisinau might evolve.
Given that neither side has the majority required to elect the president, liberal parties and the moderate left must act in a coherent and unified manner, both in terms of taking power and in a future government.
Florin Nita develops four scenarios:
1. Government without the Party of Communists
2. Grand Coalition
3. The conservative solution: The Voronin-Lupu Deal
4. Political impasse and early elections
In order to avoid these scenarios he makes the following recommendations:
- Opposition parties have to stay united and stick to their commitments not to form coalitions with the Party of Communists.
- Opposition parties must have a coherent government program based on clearly specified consensus points on economic, social and foreign policy.
- EU and Romania must be ready to grant the opposition government in Moldova massive political and economic support.
- Moldovan political parties should reach an agreement on constitutional changes allowing the election of the President directly by the electorate.
Taking on the challenge to have a voice in EU
-Romania and the Swedish EU Presidency -
Download the report in .pdf here
The Romanian Center for European Policies (CRPE) launches the report Taking on the challenge to have a voice in EU. Romania and the Swedish EU Presidency .
The report makes a thorough analysis of the most important topics (Eastern Partnership and Enlargement, Climate change and emissions cuts, The European Pact for Migration and Asylum, Regulating the financial sector at the European level, The Lisbon Strategy and the Strategy for the Baltic Sea) on the agenda of the Swedish Presidency and assesses the implications for Romania.
Recommendations from the report:
Regarding the implementation of the Eastern Partnership, Romania has the chance to Europeanize its complex relationship with Moldova. Unfortunately, signals from Brussels indicate that some European actors tend to treat the conflict as a diplomatic tussle between two equally immature countries. This is unfair because Romania has demonstrated restraint in this diplomatic conflict while being accused of involvement in April’s events without any supporting evidence. Romania needs to take a strategic policy decision: should it remain and advocate for Moldova’s accession to the European Union? And if so, under what conditions?
Regarding Climate Change and the preparations for the conference in Copenhagen (post-Kyoto emission cuts targets), the ambitious Swedish agenda could bring additional costs to Romania. We are far from achieving the targets established by the European Union and should be active players in the debate, otherwise we might discover that we have to take urgent measures, such as the closure of some power plants. CRPE report reviews the main issues in this field.
In what concerns the European Pact on Asylum and Migration, Romania has interests in the medium term, when it will probably have to cope with problems like those faced now by Greece or Italy. Given that is has the second longest external land border in the EU, Romania should be interested in the optimal functioning of FRONTEX. In the short term, Romania is in the strange position of having to negotiate standards for accommodating migrants and asylum seekers from outside the UE, while there are still labor market restrictions for Romanian workers in a number of Member States (see map in report). Now, it is a good time to insist on their removal.
Regarding regulation of financial industry at EU level, Romania has to be an active observer in the debate between the main economic actors. Concerning the intention to upgrade and revitalize the Lisbon Strategy, Romania still lags behind in applying the old targets.
Finally, the Strategy for the Baltic Sea will be a precedent for the Strategy for the Danube, scheduled to be released in 2010. The two regions have a similar profile (having a majority of Member States but also external neighbors), and Romania and other Danubian countries should seek a pace of work and similar measures for the two strategies.
Romania at the 18th-19th June European Council.
Grades for the Romanian “Commissioners”
CRPE’s second memo deals with the summer European Council held on 18-19 June 2009.
The first part of the memo analyzes the agenda of the Council, focusing on the debate surrounding the next EU Commission, its size and future President and the role of the Parliament in this debate.
The second part makes some recommendations for Romania’s position at the European Council and deals with the debate surrounding the next Romanian Commissioner.
CRPE considers that Romania’s decision to support Manuel Barroso for a new mandate as President of the Commission was a good one and that Romania should firmly position itself in the camp that asks for an immediate and formal nomination of Barroso for a second mandate. This would put Romania on a stronger position to ask for an important portfolio in the next Commission.
The report then offers an overview of the portfolios Romania might be interested in and evaluates the likelihood of the country obtaining these positions, taking into consideration other states interests in those portfolios, the current holders` position and Romania’s strengths in the respective areas. These portfolios are Agriculture (medium chances), Justice (small chances), Regional Policy (medium chances), Transport (medium chances), Energy (medium chances), Enlargement (small chances).
New Project: Romania as an Active Actor in European Debates
Although Romania entered the EU in 2007, the country lacks a robust and consistent public debate about EU policies and their effects at the local level. CRPE launches a new project - Romania as an active actor in EU debates to address this problem. Financed by the Soros Foundation Romania, our project will analyze several hot topics in EU policies, the way they could affect Romania and it will propose some positions to be adopted by Romanian decision makers. CRPE and its affiliated experts will produce regular sectorial reports in this project which will end in May 2010
The regular reports will explain the priorities of the future EU Presidencies and the way Romania`s interests fit in this picture. The sectorial reports will focus on major EU debates:
- Common Agriculture Policy `Health Check`
- EU energy security
- post-Kyoto targets for limiting green house gases
- EU budget
The first reports within this project will be launched in June (analyzing the EU Swedish Presidency) and July (on CAP `Health Check` debate).
Electoral debate “The next five years for Romanian MEPs”
MEP candidates, journalists and political analysts participated in the electoral debate: “What to expect from the future MEPs?” The conference was organized by the Romanian Center for European Policies in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Foundation and EurActiv.ro.
The event aimed to debate relevant issues for the future MEPs.. Read more >>"
More democracy in the EP elections
Date: 15.03.2009
Romania is organizing elections for the European Parliament (EP) for the second time. The last elections were overshadowed by absenteeism and an unrelated domestic political crisis. These upcoming elections seem likely to have a similar outcome. In order to prevent this to happen, brave and responsible decisions are needed, involving all parties in the competition. Here are two proposals that would attract more voters in this campaign and open the debate to the general public.
1) Changing the voting system so that the voters can choose between the candidates of the same party;
2) A written commitment on behalf of the candidates, pledging not to renounce voluntarily at their seat in PE.
