Horsens, 05/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - Uncertainty over the funding that will be available for the period from 2014 to 2020 and the contentious measures on the greening of agricultural aid are seriously complicating negotiations on the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP). That is what has come out of the informal discussions of EU agriculture ministers, in Horsens (Denmark) from 3 to 5 June.
It is the farmers who might end up paying the price for this trial of strength among their governments on the new EU budget (2014-2020), with the danger that the wide-ranging reform to make the CAP “greener” and fairer might be delayed.
UK Minister of State for Agriculture Jim Paice admitted that it is virtually certain that the EU will not be in a position to be able to implement the reform on 1 January 2014. “No one really expects an agreement on the budget before the end of this year, and it is quite clear that the reform of the CAP could not be adopted before we have a budget” sometime in the course of 2013, he said. Several European ministers (including those of Spain, Italy, France and the United Kingdom) do not seem worried at the prospect of a delay in agreement of the reform (which is due to come into force at the start of 2014). Spanish Minister Miguel Arias Canette stated: “I'm not worried by the pace of the reform. What we need most is good reform.”
There was virtual unanimity among the ministers that it is impossible to get down to fine detail, for example, on redistributing agricultural aid, without having a clear idea of the total amount of money in the pot.
Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos was upbeat: “All the ingredients are there for a decision, to be taken in the set time.” “There is no plan B which does not affect farmers and the Commission does not want to take any decision that affects farmers”, he added. The Commission feels that any delay would hit rural development programmes especially and could even have an impact on direct aid for farmers' incomes.
Irish minister Simon Coveney, whose country will take over the Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers from Cyprus in January 2013, is already envisaging the possibility of an extraordinary summit of European leaders being convened in February, before the March meeting, so that agreement on the 2014-2020 budget can be reached as quickly as possible.
Danish Agriculture Minister Mete Gjerskov, said that the Danish Presidency of the Council of Ministers was doing all in its power to take the negotiations forward. At the moment, the Presidency is drafting an interim progress report on CAP reform negotiations which will be presented at the Agriculture Council on 18 June.
Greening. Commissioner Ciolos said that good progress had been made on the principle of greening the CAP, though a number of things remain to be honed. Gjerskov said discussions focused on how to bring about the greening (environmental set-aside or crop diversification). This part of the CAP is part of the budget, so numerous decisions will only be taken once the multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020 is known. There has to be greater flexibility on greening, Gjerskov said, so that it can work just as well in Sweden as in Spain or Slovenia. She stated that organic farmers must be considered to be “green” and that farmers who take part in certification systems must be exempted from greening measures. With regard to diversification, there is also talk of flexibility on the various types of crops and the size of farms which have to comply with crop diversification.
Flexibility on greening must not simply be a menu from which countries can select the measures that suit them best, warned the commissioner, though several countries are demanding just such a level of flexibility. Ciolos said the Commission was proposing an equivalence system (the three measures for all) but does not want to penalise the leaders, that is, the regions or countries which already have specific agri-environmental schemes which go beyond what is being proposed on greening.
Under the proposals on the table, farms which will have to diversify crops must be at least ten hectares in size. The Presidency indicated that discussion is taking place on raising that lower limit to 20 or 25 hectares.
Redistribution of aid. Division is deep over fairer distribution of direct aid from one country to another and one farm to another. Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Austria fervently oppose the convergence proposals. They are likely to propose alternative options on internal convergence.
Differences exist, too, on the capping of agricultural aid for large farms, which is rejected by Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Romania. Discussions are advancing, however, on the greening of aid, which seeks to make aid in part conditional on compliance with environmental measures, such as set-aside or crop diversification. (LC/transl.rt)