Luxembourg, 24/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - In Luxembourg on Monday 24 June, the Irish Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the EU prepared the ground for facilitating an inter-institutional compromise on the reform of the common agriculture policy (CAP) (see EUROPE 10872). It hopes that this Tuesday will see an agreement between the member states on a revised mandate, ahead of a final trialogue with the EP on Wednesday morning. “We are very close to a compromise”, said European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos at the start of the Agriculture Council.
Internal convergence. The Presidency has proposed partial convergence, with a lower obligatory threshold of between 50% and 70%. In order to keep the EP happy, it has proposed the possibility of limiting the loss arising from convergence to 30% per farmer. “The 'landing zone' presented by the Presidency is considerably too wide”, was, however, the Commissioner's view.
Greening. Double financing is out of the question, say the Commission and the EP. The equivalence mechanism won the agreement of the parties in their trialogue meeting. As regards the areas of ecological interest, “we must discuss the details for moving from 5% to 7% if, and only if, we start in 2015 with a rate of 5%, as the Council brought into its mandate in March”, said the Commission. It states that not all of the Council's ideas on the list of zones to be established can be accepted, as some of them are impracticable and others “unthinkable”, as they allow the intensive use of pesticides or fertiliser.
Active farmers, young farmers, smallholders. The Presidency is proposing a short list, which is obligatory and modifiable at national level, excluding certain operators (airports, sports grounds, leisure centres) from the category of active farmer. It suggests that obligatory aid to young farmers be included either in the direct aid pillar or the rural development pillar. Aid to small holdings will be optional.
Coupled payments. The Commission is prepared to accept limited flexibility on a slightly higher rate taking account of the challenge of proteins. The Presidency proposes 8% (for those using little or no coupled aid) and 13% (for those using coupled aid), compared to 7% and 12% in the Council's stance of March and 3% more for protein crops.
Upper limits. It will continue to be optional to place an upper limit on aid, but the Presidency has made a concession to the EP by proposing obligatory degressivity (between €150,000 and €300,000 in payments).
Market organisations. On sugar, Ireland is proposing to end quotas in 2017. The Commission is prepared to accept this, in return for a reinforcement of producer organisations and inter-professions (obligatory contracts). On wine, it is proposed that the new planting authorisation system start in 2016 and end in 2030. The annual increase in authorisations will be limited to 1%. For milk, there are plans to extend the intervention period for butter and milk powder by one month (and increase purchases for intervention to 50,000 tonnes). Appellation cheeses have been included in the list of private storage aid. The EP will have to give up its crisis mechanism (paying farmers to cut production). (LC/transl.fl)