Brussels, 24/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 23 October, the three EU institutions reached a political agreement at the informal trialogue on transitional measures to be introduced in 2014, whilst waiting for the comprehensive entry into force of common agricultural policy (CAP) reform in 2015. Some aspects in the reform involve direct payments to be applied in 2014: redistributive payments (bonus for the first hectares) and increase for some coupled support (aid that is still related to production). Negotiators settled most of the problems at the first trialogue on 17 October (see EUROPE 10946).
Transition measures will allow for the smooth entry into force of CAP reform, which has already been agreed by the different institutions. The new common market organisation regulation will enter into force in 2014. This is not the case for the regulation on direct payments and rural development. On these two texts, member states will need 2014 to prepare implementation of the new rules.
The new direct payments in the reformed CAP, including greening (30% of aid linked to respecting certain ecological criteria), will enter into force from 1 January 2015 but there will be a number of exceptions.
Coupled payments: negotiators agreed that in 2014, member states would be able to increase their minimum rates to 6.5% of the national ceilings (as opposed to 3.5% under the current provisions) and 13% in the new regulation on direct payments would therefore apply in 2015.
Redistributive payment: this will help to allocate a bonus for the first hectares in farms and could be applied from 2014.
Direct payment reductions in 2014
At the informal trialogue on 23 October, the Council and EP overcame their differences on the threshold levels after which direct payments for farmers will be reduced in 2014 (2015 budget year) if requests for aid from farmers go beyond the national envelopes. The Council called for a €2,000 threshold (Ed: as is the case for the financial discipline mechanism which is different from this technical adjustment). The European Parliament, however, won its argument because the threshold decided on will be €5,000. In exchange for this, MEPs withdrew their demands on state aid in the milk sector.
Rural development
With regard to the regulation on rural development, member states in 2014 will be able to fund programmes under the old regulation, with funds from new budgetary programming: the measures affected are those linked to surface area and animals (agri-environmental measures, for example) and investments (particularly for young farmer start-ups). On the question of the rural development regulation, the European Parliament won its argument that member states would be able to use the new funds for financing new agricultural projects under the current rules. The Commission gave its support to these new programmes (particularly irrigation) that respected the new but stricter rules.
Transparency in 2015
Publication of CAP payment beneficiaries for the 2013 tax year will still be carried out according to the old transparency rules (therefore, the names of natural persons will not be divulged). The new transparency rules will be applicable from 2015 for payments made in 2014.
Adoption timetable. All of the transition measures must now be officially adopted in first reading by the European Parliament and Council, before the end of the year, so that they can be applied from 1 January 2014. The rule on transitional measures must be formally adopted before the end of the year. The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) is expected to approve the text at its meeting on 28 October. The Agriculture Council will formally adopt the regulation in December. The European Parliament agriculture committee will vote on this dossier on 4 November and the plenary will ratify the agreement afterwards in mid-November. The delegated and implementation acts of the CAP reform are expected to be published in the first quarter of 2014, so that member states can prepare comprehensive implementation of the new CAP for 1 January 2015. (LC/transl.fl)