Final remarks

Without such pre-requisites, the whole discussion on the Mediterranean Solar Plan may deviate from its main objective. As a project included in the UfM, it should aim to create a shared prosperity area in the Euro-Mediterranean region. This can only be achieved by accompanying MPC reform efforts and strengthening their economic opportunities, through green electricity exports, for example. Southern Mediterranean neighbours have shown their interest in renewable energies, but have also clearly pointed out the kind of European support they require: investment, training, gradual delocalisation of indus-trial stages, and technology transfers. Without the upgrading of MPC institu-tions, human capital and the rural energy poverty situation, the MSP may be reduced to an EU strategy to achieve the region’s own environmental objec-tives together with promoting European renewable energy industries, energy companies and engineering firms. This scenario would contribute very little to MPC development. MPCs themselves should be aware that in order to reap the benefits of RES deployment, significant upgrading at the institutional and infrastructure levels is needed. They must signal their will to provide an attractive ecosystem for investment, training and technology transfers.

Regarding the consistency of EU policies in promoting RES, the MSP and Directive 2009/28 offer a coherent framework with complementary goals. The Directive establishes a viable institutional framework for cross-border RES flows, while the MSP should catalyse investment to advance specific projects.

The problem seems to lie in the lack of traction of the UfM Secretariat, but the difficulties of the current financial crisis should not be forgotten. In any case, the MSP has not been able to translate into a comprehensive strategy to include MPC preferences such as job creation, economic growth and industrial development. The institutional structure is there, but the development compo-nent is not properly addressed. The Europeanisation strategy represented by the European Neighbourhood Policy and the ECT insists in regulatory aspects, without recognising the particularities of MPCs, some of which are important hydrocarbon producers for whom unbundling policies is very difficult to imple-ment without compromising their traditional engine of growth. A differentiated RES-focused approach built upon the MSP and Directive 2009/28, together with specific provisions in ENP Advanced Status (for instance with Morocco and, in the future, Tunisia) could prove a better strategy in the short run.

Based on the arguments presented above, any agenda related to RES promo-tion in MPCs over the next 18 months would have to include:

1. A clear and comprehensive strategy that links RES deployment with eco-nomic development in MPCs;

2. Efforts to foster absorption capacities at both the industrial and regula-tory levels;

3. Guarantees that some industrial processes will take place in MPCs and that RES deployment is increasingly accompanied by industrial delocalisation;

4. The fight against energy poverty on the MSP agenda;

5. A credible institutional framework for trans-Mediterranean green electric-ity flows that is attractive to both MPCs and European investors;

6. Clarification of the role of the UfM’s Secretariat and the European Commission in advancing the MSP; the depoliticisation of the Secretariat for it to become an operational agency for RES projects.

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an EXTErnal STraTEGY For EuropEan aGriculTurE

MEETinG FooD SEcuriTY anD EnVironMEnTal challEnGES

Nadège Chambon | Senior Research Fellow,

Notre Europe – Jacques Delors Institute

Summary

The worrying prospect of having 9 billion inhabitants on earth in 2050 and the environmental challenges related to growing demands for food, fuel and fibre are placing agriculture under scrutiny at the global level. Agriculture must play a key role in poor countries to provide sufficient and affordable food for poor populations. At the same time, growing concerns have emerged regard-ing the serious consequences conventional farmregard-ing systems may have on the planet’s ability to satisfy basic needs in the medium term. This Policy Paper explores how the EU currently deals with two different major global chal-lenges: insuring food security and the promotion of environmental commit-ments. This overview suggests that greater coherence between EU policies and actors would help Europeans develop a unified strategic approach to cope with these challenges more efficiently.

Introduction

For more than half a century, the spectrum of food shortages has been far removed from the minds of citizens, voters and political decision makers in the EU. The modernisation of agriculture after World War II and the success of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – created in 1962 to end food dependency on the US – brought about this new era. A normal consequence of this unprec-edented situation in human history is a downgrading of agricultural issues in the list of strategic priorities of European decision makers. However, the 2008-2009 food riots, which in part triggered the Arab revolutions, put those issues back at the top of the international agenda.

The worrying prospect of having 9 billion inhabitants on earth in 2050 and the environmental challenges related to growing demands for food, fuel and fibre (e.g.

potential pollution, water shortages, gas emissions, desertification due to soil ero-sion, biodiversity losses, etc.) are placing agricultural issues under scrutiny.

Since the beginning of 2000s and particularly in the last four years, a U-turn in the international public debate about agriculture in developing countries has occurred. The burst of the Washington consensus once the economic cri-sis was triggered, helped discredit the agricultural policy recommendations of international organisations of the past 25 years–mainly of the World Bank and IMF, yet not of the FAO. According to these recommendations, agriculture and agricultural policies were useless for development. Today, to the contrary, international institutions underline the key role agriculture must play in poor countries in providing sufficient and affordable food for poor populations. At the same time, growing concerns have emerged regarding the serious conse-quences conventional farming systems may have on the planet’s ability to sat-isfy basic needs in the medium term. Moreover, the effects of climate change threaten agricultural systems and will stress food security and food prices.

What is the vision and action of the EU on those strategic issues?

Addressing the external dimension of European agriculture as such is quite unusual: habitually only single aspects of it (e.g. food aid) are studied. This overview suggests that greater coherence between EU policies and actors would help Europeans develop a unified strategic approach to cope with these challenges more efficiently.