Brussels, 30/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) meeting on Monday 27 April, the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU presented new draft conclusions on simplifying the common agricultural policy (CAP). It hopes that the May Council will adopt these conclusions despite differences of views on this issue.
Several delegations, including those of Austria, Finland, United Kingdom and Denmark, called for amendment to part of paragraph 10.1, indicating that they felt the definition of permanent grasslands was problematic (with regard to the greening of direct aid). Other countries - Italy, Greece, Spain, Malta and Cyprus - felt that the reference to marketing standards in paragraph 10.2 was not appropriate and should be removed. Some countries, such as France, Belgium and Spain, argued that the concept of “negligible amounts” in the optional application of crisis instruments was not clear and should, if necessary, be removed. These countries called for ambitious instruments in this area.
It was, however, mention of a mid-term review of the basic texts of the CAP, in 2017, which brought the strongest reaction. A group of countries, which included France, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Slovakia, felt that use of this term was inappropriate as it implied a possible change in the legislation, when the reformed CAP has only just come into force. Several of these countries called for paragraph 12.3, which includes the reference to the mid-term review, to be removed or completely re-worked. Other countries - Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Estonia, Finland and Croatia - said that they would prefer that the paragraph speak, not about a mid-term review, but about a thorough consideration of the simplification measures (on the basis of what had already been put into practice), possibly leading, if necessary, to amendments on the edges of the basic texts.
The Presidency will bring forward a new draft text at the SCA meeting on Monday 4 May, with a view to agreeing conclusions at the Agriculture Council on 11 May. (Lionel Changeur)