Horsens, 04/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The prospect of reaching agreement this year on the Multiannual Financial Framework (EU budget) for 2014-2020 is looking increasingly unlikely, and this will have a negative impact on the planned reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which is due to come into force on 1 January 2014. The European Commission fears that delays in the debate over the 2014-2020 budget will endanger introduction of the new CAP rules in 2014, which would be damaging to farmers, said EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, at a meeting of EU farm ministers in Horsens, Denmark, on Sunday 4 June.
The Commissioner said he didn't want to talk about delays because there was still the chance of agreement being reached on time. Ideally, the European Summit will agree the budget at the end of the year and the CAP reforms will be endorsed in the first half of 2013. Some European farm ministers, however, like the UK farm minister, think that it is unlikely the new rules will come into force on 1 January 2014 because nobody really expects politicians to agree on the budget in December. The Irish Presidency (which takes over at the start of 2013) is aware that it is likely to inherit the budget talks and have the tricky task of getting agreement.
Ciolos said this was why he was examining all possible scenarios in case agreement is not reached and the farm changes cannot come on stream on 1 January 2014 as planned. Any delays would harm farmers, he said, because they would impact negatively on rural development programmes and might even affect direct farm payments.
The problem is that final agreement might be reached on the CAP reforms before knowing how much cash will be in the coffers. Ciolos said he didn't see how EU countries and MEPs could agree on changes to direct aid without knowing how much money will be available. Negotiations on the CAP reforms with MEPs have not yet begun. The Danish Presidency will be submitting a progress report at the Agriculture Council of 18 June.
Cyprus, which will be taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU from Denmark on 1 July 2012, hopes that agreement can be reached in principle on the EU's multiannual budget by October, paving the way for final agreement in December. Some EU27 farm ministers, visiting a national marine park at Wadden and an organic farm in Denmark on Monday 4 June, seem optimistic, however. Danish Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner says the timeline is ambitious but do-able, and this is echoed by Finnish Minister Jari Koskinen. (LC/transl.fl)