Samenvatting

In 2000 the European Union (EU) signed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a United Nations (UN) policy in order to reduce poverty until 2015 by half compared to the figures from 2000. The EU is fully committed to the achievement of these internationally established MDGs which aim to end poverty in the long-term. Nevertheless, EU´s agriculture and trade policy is hindering the achievement of the MDGs. The EU pays the biggest financial support worldwide to farmers via its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Over €50 billion are transferred each year to the European agricultural stakeholders and the secondary industry. It is the biggest burden of European taxpayers and accounts for almost half of the EU´s budget. CAP is
highly trade distorting and deleterious for the developing countries
throughout the world. EU companies are selling their products in poor
countries below their cost of production. This policy is called price
dumping and is common with poultry, cotton, dairy products and other dietary staples that end on the markets of developing countries (DC) that depend highly on agriculture as their base of life. Especially in Africa the farmers cannot compete with the subsidised food imported from the EU and their rural development is hindered. The EU
hinders self-sufficiency in food to DC by cheap food exports, trade
agreements and pressure imposed by the EU. The main goal of the CAP was originally to achieve self-sufficiency in food for Europe. The EU market itself is still highly protected by both official and on-official tariffs. The commitment of the EU to reduce poverty by 2015 by half is strong on paper, but fails to promote and support a genuine rural development and assistance policy for DC. The incoherence of EU policies is striking. On the one hand the EU wants to help DC to build up an independent and self-sufficient agriculture. On the other hand DC are flooded with foodstuff
that compete with local products and destroy the livelihood of the local farmers, which is agriculture. These practices restrain DC especially in West Africa to aim for food sovereignty and their Right to Food - which is a "human right and is a binding obligation well-established under international law" (Ziegler, n.d.).