Brussels, 02/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - After having approved the agreement on the entire reform package for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Parliament's agriculture committee agreed on a mandate for the future negotiations with the Council on the transitional provisions to apply in 2014.
Due to opposition from the Greens and Socialists, the proposal by rapporteur Albert Dess (EPP, Germany) to postpone the introduction of greening aid to January 2016 was rejected. Greening will apply from 1 January 2015, in compliance with the agreement on the new CAP. The European Commission has always refused to postpone the entry into force of greening by a year.
Transparency. MEPs approved an amendment by Albert Dess and Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, Finland) that will allow member states to postpone by a year (to January 2016), publication of information on the beneficiaries of EU agricultural funds. They also extended the list of rural development programmes (for the 2007-2013 programming period) that can be financed during the transition period in the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework. The list includes programmes for young farmers, early retirement schemes and investment measures.
Abandoned farmland. MEPs from the Baltic states managed to obtain an amendment that will enable farmers to receive subsidies for reintroducing abandoned farmland into the system. These three countries also highlighted the increasing problem of abandoned farmland in their rural areas.
Transitional national aid for 2014. Countries from Central and Eastern Europe using the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS) also managed to have complementary national payments (payments from national budgets that reduce imbalances in direct payments between member states) introduced for 2014. Reform will allow the use of this transitional national aid from 2015 to 2020.
Redistributive payments. An amendment supported by the French and the Germans on the agriculture committee proposed applying the system of redistributive payments for the first hectares during the transition period. As part of CAP reform, it had been agreed that this system would apply from January 2015 (member states can use up to 30% of the national envelope and redistribute it to farmers for their first 30 hectares of land or up to the average size of farms if the farm in question is more than 30 hectares).
The Council may adopt its position on the Special Committee for Agriculture (SCA) on 7 October. Trilogues between the institutions will then take place in an effort to adopt the regulation on transitional measures by the end of the year. (LC/transl.fl)