Brussels, 12/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - In a paper presented on Monday 11 November to the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), 23 EU countries (including France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, Hungary, Finland and Romania) call on the European Commission to correct a series of delegated acts on reform of common agricultural policy (CAP).
During Monday's SCA, a number of signatory countries to the document (to name but a few: France, Denmark, Hungary, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Ireland) said the Commission's proposals for some delegated acts were divorced from the principles defined in the political agreement of June and September on reform of CAP. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, pointed out that they supported the paper even if they were not always in agreement with the examples cited.
“Consistency between the basic acts and the delegated acts is of paramount importance for the quality of agricultural legislation”, the states say, taking the view that the Commission's proposals raise a large number of problems.
The delegations above all reproach the Commission for provisions that would limit young farmers' access to additional support provided for them by the new CAP. They also note the risk of reducing subsidies for organic crops, contrary to the spirit of the new CAP. According to the note: - the transcription in the delegated acts of the principle of “no double funding” raises a lot of questions among member states; - the draft delegated act related to the basic payment scheme (DS/EGDP/2013/6 - rev 1) also contains significant inconsistencies with the basic act, which leads to a limitation of the number of payment entitlements allocated to any farmer; - the draft delegated act linked to coupled aid restricts the range of Article 38 of the regulation on direct payments, mainly in the sheep and goat meat sectors and the production of protein and oil crops.
Furthermore, problems are raised in the delegated acts that relate to the greening of aid (including when it concerns criteria on the areas of ecological interest and permanent pastureland). (LC/transl.jl)