On July 1, Estonia took over the rotating EU Council presidency for the first time ever.
With the exception of Foreign Affairs, Estonia will now schedule and chair all ministerial meetings including agriculture.
Estonian said they will focus on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), based on the outcome of the public consultation launched by the European Commission on CAP reform.
What public consultation? Did you hear anything about it? I didn’t, while I admit I don’t read everything I should, I’m certainly not hiding under a rock when it comes to agriculture.
For the record, the consultation opened on 2nd February and closed 2nd May.
That was twelve weeks to spot a consultation on CAP was happening, twelve weeks to find out how to participate and twelve weeks to formulate a response.
The CAP is one of the EU’s longest-standing policies and is the only EU policy that directly affects every citizen of Europe yet twelve weeks was considered long enough for a public consultation.
The EU really needs to get off its high horse and start engaging with people otherwise Brexit might just be the start.