Brussels, 29/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 28 November, the Polish Presidency of the EU Council presented a draft compromise to the EU member state delegations on orchestration in legal form of the Franco-German political agreement, reached on 14 November in 2012 and 2013. The agreement relates to continuation of the programme for distribution of food to the poor (see EUROPE N.10494).
The compromise takes up the following elements of the Franco-German agreement which allowed the food aid scheme for the poor to be extended: - suppression of the reference to Article 175(3) on social cohesion and a reference to only Articles 42 and 43(2) of the Treaty (common agricultural policy); - a scheme applicable only in 2012 and 2013; - and a statement from the Commission on the end of the scheme after 2013. It was on this last point specifically that problems are raised and on which negotiation between the different parties focuses. The Commission which, in the next multiannual financial framework (2014-2020), earmarked €2.8 billion in the social cohesion budget for food aid to the deprived of the EU, considers that such a statement would bring its right of initiative into question.
The compromise text, which is based on the common market organisation (CMO) regulation, also provides for: - retroactive implementation and, given the procedure involving the Parliament, the text may not be adopted until the end of the year but should nevertheless apply by 1 January 2012; - provisions on aligning CAP texts to the Treaty of Lisbon are not taken into account in the text because they are not part of the initial agreement and the Presidency considers this could delay the agreement with the EP on the text; - and no report on implementation of the programme would be asked of the Commission, given the fact that its duration is limited to two years.
Following the European Court ruling of 13/04/2011, which deemed that the arrangements in 2009 to provide food bought on the open market were illegal relative to the existing regulation, the 2012 plan had to be adopted with a much reduced budget. Thus, on 10 June 2011, the Commission was obliged to adopt a 2012 plan limited to the purchase of available public intervention stocks - a budget of just €113.5 million (compared to the €500 million initially planned). In order to overcome the legal difficulties raised by certain member states, the European Commission revised its proposal again on 3 October 2011. It added a second legal base (Article 175(3) - social cohesion - to go with the existing agricultural legal base, and proposed to maintain funding exclusively from the EU budget). On 14 November, an agreement was reached in the Council under Franco-German impetus, ensuring that the European food aid scheme for the poor be extended for two years (2012 and 2013), via a statement ensuring that, in 2014, the programme no longer be financed by the EU. (LC/transl.jl)