Brussels, 18/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - In the evening of Thursday 17 October, the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission reached agreement in principle on transitional rules for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2014.
For Direct Payments, the transition regulation confirms that the new Direct Payment concept agreed in CAP reform, including Greening, will only apply from January 2015. However, the trilogue confirmed that member states should have option to apply the “redistributive payment” - a reallocation of funds on the first thirty hectares - next year. Similarly, member states will have the possibility for slightly extended “coupled” payments (under Article 68) next year. It is planned to increase the upper limit on coupled payments from 3.5% to 6.5% in 2014 and 13% in 2015.
As regards Rural Development, the main aim of the regulation is to ensure that Axis 1 and Axis 2 measures that continue into the new 2014-2020 programming period are not interrupted next year. The Commission rejected a call by the Parliament to reimburse RD spending before programmes are approved.
All sides agreed on authorisation of state aid in Finland to temporarily buffer the end of transitional aid (provided under Article 141 of the Finnish Act of Accession), allowing degressive state aid payments to agricultural producers in southern Finland over the period of 2014-2020, subject to a Commission decision authorising these payments. This is accepted subject to the level of income aid in 2020 being not more than 30% of the aid paid in 2013, and on the condition that full use has been made of existing CAP support schemes.
Finally, the trilogue confirmed that the publication of the 2013 financial year payments will still be done according to the old transparency rules, i.e. not for natural persons, and the new transparency rules (including natural persons) will be applicable on payments from the 2014 financial year onwards.
Procedures. Having resolved the outstanding points in this first trilogue meeting, it is now hoped that the Parliament and the Council can formally adopt these rules in the coming weeks and thereby provide legal certainty for CAP payments in 2014. Although the Basic Regulations for the CAP for 2014-2020 - as agreed in the recent Reform - should be adopted before the end of the year, this regulation is needed because the necessary Delegated and Implementing Acts will only be finalised in the first few months of next year and also because it will not be possible for member states to have the necessary administration and controls systems in time. (LC/transl.fl)