Ms Anne Franke:

I was asked about the position Germany - and perhaps more specifically Bavaria - holds with regard to the Common Agricultural Policy and the political decision on how supporting measures would be allocated. It has traditionally been the position in Germany to decouple production from these support payments which are made available through this European programme. So the traditional political position would clearly have been to have this land-ownership-based. However, there is now a discussion over whether this is really the best policy to pursue and there is a rethinking of that policy based on the understanding and also some scientific support for the position that if public moneys are spent, they should be spent on something that makes a contribution to society and it should not just be based on ownership of land. So currently the German position within the Common Agricultural Policy discussions and negotiations is still the decoupled position based on land ownership, but there is a shift in the political thinking on that issue that we observe. Bavaria, in particular, strongly supports holders of small farms and family farms.