Brussels, 15/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU countries made progress on Monday 12 September in the complex matter of bringing several common agricultural policy (CAP) texts into line with the Lisbon Treaty. This was achieved by means of a proposal from the European Commission for a “horizontal” compromise affecting a number of similar arrangements which feature in the four main CAP texts (direct payments, rural development, single common market organisation and the funding of the CAP).
At the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) in Wroc³aw (Poland) on Monday, the vast majority of delegations felt that the horizontal proposal was useful and could make it easier for agreement to be found among the three EU institutions. Many countries, including Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, called for alignment to be completed before negotiations begin in mid-October on the legislative proposals on CAP reform.
With regard to delegated acts and implementing acts, in particular for monitoring and sanctions, most countries, including Spain, the United Kingdom and France, wanted the general principles to be contained in the basic act, with the technical detail going into implementing acts. The Commission, which, along with the European Parliament (EP), is making the case for delegated acts, believes that including the general principles in the basic act runs the risk of making the texts very complicated at a time when far-reaching reform of the CAP beckons.
Some experts on the SCA, in particular those from France, Germany and the Czech Republic, argued, like the EP, for delegation to the Commission to be limited to five years. Several countries, including Italy, Denmark, Finland and Ireland, remain flexible on this point and would be prepared to accept the 7-year length of delegation sought by the Commission in order to fall into line with the next planning period 2014-2020.
On the new comitology procedure in the event of no majority being found in a committee and that committee's not being able, therefore, to give an opinion, several delegations preferred to work “case-by-case”: depending on the text and the issue under discussion, the procedure would allow the matter to be put to an appeals committee in the event of a committee's being unable to deliver an opinion. The Commission argues that working case-by-case de facto rules this provision out of the horizontal approach and says that referral to an appeals committee would dramatically slow down procedures.
The member states are divided over the Commission proposal on the financial and budgetary procedure. Some, including Poland and France, would like the Council to have exclusive power, while others were more accommodating in the search for an overall compromise package.
The scope of Article 43(3) (areas of exclusive Council competence) and the emergency procedure called for by the Commission will be discussed at a later date.
At the SCA meeting, three countries - Italy, Spain and France - requested that an “any other business” item be added to the agenda of the next Agriculture Council, on 20 September, on the lessons to be drawn from the crisis which affected the fruit and vegetable sector (including economic components). (LC/transl.rt)