Mariann Fischer Boel
| Mariann Fischer Boel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development | |
|
In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010 |
|
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by |
Franz Fischler Sandra Kalniete (Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries) |
| Succeeded by | Dacian Cioloş |
| Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries | |
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In office 27 November 2001 – 2 August 2004 |
|
| Prime Minister | Anders Fogh Rasmussen |
| Preceded by | Ritt Bjerregaard |
| Succeeded by | Hans Christian Schmidt |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 April 1943 Åsum, Denmark |
| Political party | Venstre |
Mariann Fischer Boel (Danish pronunciation: [maʁian fiɕɐ ˈb̥oˀl]; born 15 April 1943, Åsum) is a Danish politician, serving as European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development from 2004 to 2009. A member of the party Venstre, she had previously been minister of agriculture and foods since 2002, in the government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
In 2008, she was given the European Taxpayers' Award from the Taxpayers' Association of Europe for her decision to abolish export refunds for exports of live cattle from the EU, and for her ongoing efforts to improve the transparency of agricultural payments.
In 2008, she was presented with the Danish European Movement's price for "European of the Year".
In 2008, she was awarded the Wine Personality of the Year 2008 award by the International Wine Challenge, which said, about her efforts to drag the European wine industry into the 21st century, that "family vineyards might have been pulled up and the family winemaking tradition lost had it not been for the intrepid heroine from the north".
As Commissioner, FIscher Boel has based her work on three guiding principles:
She has continued the CAP reform process, notably within the three sectors that were exempted from the reform of 2003: sugar, fruit and vegetables, and wine. The sectors had initially been left alone partly because reforming them presented huge political difficulties.
Boel also took steps to bolster the EU Rural Development Policy, preparing it to deliver more coherent and balanced results against clear objectives in the new financial period of 2007 to 2013.
Later in her mandate, she carried out a review of the CAP, which became known as the “CAP Health Check” and made further policy adjustments to ensure that the reformed CAP was working as intended and was addressing the challenges of the 21st century.
When Boel took office in 2004, the EU had regulated its sugar sector in more or less the same way for some 40 years, supporting a domestic sugar price far above world market prices to keep production in place in each country.
Although the EU did not have a comparative advantage in sugar production, its policy was creating large surpluses that were exported with subsidies, which was not welcomed by many of its trade partners.
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