Dublin, 28/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - During the visit of an agronomical research centre (funded by the state), in the countryside and dairy farms of County Meath, the journalists present were able to briefly meet a number of ministers during the afternoon of Monday 27 May and thus record their impressions of talks underway on reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP).
Stéphane Le Foll, the French agriculture minister, described the atmosphere of Monday's meeting between the Council and EP as “not bad. There was no great tension. It went quite well”. There are issues on which France would like to see more progress made. Firstly, on aid coupling, there is a golden mean to be found between the 12% proposed by the Council and the 15% proposed by the EP. And, on post-quotas in the milk sector, the French minister said, there is a need for regulation and there are things in the Dantin report which are very interesting. Le Foll believes in particular that production costs should be integrated when safety nets are launched. One cannot, he said, allow Europe to exit dairy quotas without a substantial market regulation element. On the subject of greening, he went on, there is no reticence and there is no longer any blocking. When it comes to internal convergence, France considers it has achieved some things - including for the first 50 hectares (rise in the allocation for the first 50 hectares, which is beneficial to small and medium sized farms). Le Foll confirmed that Spain, Portugal and Italy are discussing a great deal about internal convergence. France suggested taking up the three EP reports and identifying the points of convergence and the difficult points for preparing the June Council with the aim of finalising a reform. The French minister went on to conclude by saying that the reform of the CAP should not be linked to the budgetary question even if the EP is unable to adopt reform unless there is a budgetary framework.
Germany defends double funding.
Ilse Aigner, the German agricultural minister, explained in essence, in relation to the problem of double funding (under the first pillar with aid greening and the second pillar with agri-environmental measures in rural development programmes), that it was not necessary to reduce premiums of businesses that apply agri-environmental measures. “Without double funding, you would also hurt organic farms”, said Aigner. She also underlined the importance of not going back to market-oriented CAP and explained that Germany does not understand the need for aid coupling (aid linked to production). Germany is opposed to capping and considers it is not necessary to take this up again as the European Council has enacted on the matter (it opts for voluntary capping).
Simon Coveney, Ireland's Agriculture Minister, said on the subject of internal convergence that the minimum threshold of 75% proposed by the Commission is too high.
Miguel Arias Canete remains firm on internal convergence.
“I will not be the minister who will be remembered as the one who condemned a whole sector to disappear”, the Spanish minister said, citing “olive oil and rice farmers in Extremadura”. It is a red line so Spain and Madrid will vote no if no reasonable solution is found. Even with the introduction of 65%-75% of the regional or national average, this would mean farmers go out of business in certain areas, said Miguel Arias Canete. “We have to come up with a solution that will limit losses for farmers - an amendment in the EP position has been included in this regard”, he said. He finds the model proposed by Ireland suitable.
Sabine Laruelle, the Belgian minister, was of the view that sugar helps “crystallise” quite a view divergent positions. Belgium is not in favour of a compulsory system of support for small farms. The Belgian minister warned that “if there is nothing on the regulation, then our position will get tougher”.
Mette Gjerskov of Denmark asserted that “everybody has to move in order to get an agreement”. On internal convergence, “the Irish model is the best compromise that we have at the moment”, she said, expecting difficult discussion on young farmers, small farmers, capping, CAP alignment on the treaty, and also on coupling support. She said: “I am not sure if there will be a compromise on capping, because it gives us a lot of bureaucracy”.
The chairman of the EP committee on agriculture, Paolo de Castro (S&D, Italy) was quite optimistic about the chances of reaching an agreement in June, saying: “We had an opportunity to show the political importance of the Parliament in this process. I suspect that the ministers have understood. We are moving in the right direction”. He added: “On the final compromise by end of June, this is the only window of opportunity we have. If we miss it the reform would be delayed” (with elections in Germany on 22 September 2013). (LC/transl.jl)