EU agriculture experts, meeting on Monday 15 May, questioned the competence of the REFIT platform to debate issues related to the common agricultural policy (CAP).
At the request of Spain, the European Commission informed the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) about the work of the REFIT platform and its impact on agricultural matters.
The REFIT platform brings together the Commission, national authorities and other interested parties at regular intervals in order to discuss the improvement of existing EU legislation. Hitherto, the platform has received over 200 suggestions on how to improve legislation; 16% of these submissions relate to agriculture.
The SCA delegations expressed concern that discussions about agriculture are taking place in a forum where the agriculture sector is not well represented (neither in the stakeholder nor in the governmental group). They also highlighted a possible lack of coordination between what REFIT is doing and discussions on CAP simplification/reform within the Agriculture Council and the SCA. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)