Brussels, 25/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Obligatory compensatory environmental aid, which was proposed by the European Commission among the various new elements of the common agricultural policy (CAP) for post-2013 (EUROPE 10259), met with little enthusiasm from the countries of the EU. Additionally, this desire to “green” aid under the CAP met with differences of opinion between European agriculture ministers on Monday 25 January, on ways to fund this obligatory ecological component of direct payments.
According to the European Commission, obligatory environmental compensatory aid should take the form of environmental measures applicable to the entire territory of the EU. It would therefore come under the first pillar of the CAP.
At a press conference following the Agriculture Council, Sándor Fazekas, the Hungarian minister, acknowledged that opinions differed over the question of whether environmental protection should come under the first pillar (direct aid and market expenditure) or the second pillar (rural development). “Once we have found an adequate solution for the protection of the environment and natural resources, irrespective of the pillar, the most important thing is simplification. And I do not think that this is mission impossible. The CAP must be based on simple and on bureaucratic rules, we need to simplify the rules”, the Hungarian agriculture minister, who chaired the Council.
Avoiding a two-speed CAP. Dacian Cioloº, European Commissioner for Agriculture, also noted the differences of opinion over the subject. To justify plans to introduce a green component into first-pillar aid, Cioloº stressed the importance of having a “global response throughout the territory of the EU to the question of managing natural resources. And not only a response in certain regions in a specific way, as is currently the case with agro-environmental measures” (which come under the second pillar). “We must not create a two-speed CAP over this issue, which means having certain regions on the one hand aiming solely at productivity and not worrying about sustainability and on the other, regions with small-scale agriculture linked to the environment”, the commissioner warned. It is important to show that agriculture in Europe can build its competitiveness without harming the sustainability of its natural resources, he concluded.
Several countries (France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain, Poland, etc) said that the greening of aid has its place in the first pillar, as long as the first pillar remains strong. Germany stressed the need not to complicate the system, and France stressed that this greening should be incorporated into what already exists. Countries which said that these environmental protection actions should come under the second pillar include the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Slovakia and Sweden. The Council will discuss the reform of the CAP again in February, before adopting conclusions on the subject in March. (L.C./transl.fl)