Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski:

I fully agree with my colleague. I also agree with Deputy McGrath that bureaucracy is a very big problem in the European Union. This is one of the conclusions of our report which was presented to the agriculture committee today. In respect of the Rural Development Programme, RDP, the European Commission requires too much. In the financial period 2007 to 2013, the average size of the programme document was 400 pages. In the next period, it was 700 pages. It contained a lot of data that was interesting for academic discussion but not for the farmers. The Irish RDP was one page shorter. In respect of absorption of the RDP, Ireland is in second place. Finland has 43% absorption and Ireland has 38%. The average size, four years into the current financial period, is 21%. It is therefore a better situation in Ireland.

I presented two reports about the RDP and the young farmers scheme. We have very serious problems with agriculture in the European Union. During the last decade, we have lost 4 million farms. We have lost almost 20 million in respect of land declared by the farmers to the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. We have a very difficult problem with the generational situation among farmers. Some 80% of farmers are older than 45 and one third of European farmers are older than 65. In a country like Portugal, over 50% of farmers are aged over 65. My country of Poland has one of the best situations. Interestingly, this positive result in support for young farmers in Poland was achieved by support for the old farmers. There is a special pension system and there are other supports for them.

We have two levels of bureaucracy, European and national. I made a similar presentation to today's at the Polish Parliament. I presented the young farmers report, for which Poland was one of the countries audited. I would say that the European Court of Auditors has nothing against Polish farmers. There are no abuses or irregularities. However, a representative of young farmers who was there said the Polish authority had a lot of objections against them. Some 3,000 farmers were forced to reimburse part or all of the funding. It was surprising. The national authority created additional requirements to those of European law. From our point of view, everything was okay. From a national point of view, there was a big problem.

The main problem of European agriculture is a lack of long-term vision for the future, beyond the next seven years. We are used to planning agriculture policy over seven-year periods.

It is necessary to have a long-term vision of what European agriculture will be like from 2040 to 2050. How many farms will there be, how many farmers, and what will the model of farming be, whether family farming or industrial farming? This is a political choice. It is a necessary discussion about the long-term vision of agriculture, not just for seven years, which is not enough. It should be the vision for a longer time.