The Committee of the Region’s draft opinion on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2020 will be debated in the competent committee on 1 June, with a view to adoption at the plenary session on 12-13 July. The draft opinion argues for the post-2020 CAP budget to “continue to constitute the same percentage of the EU budget” but calls for it to “be used more effectively”.
Rapporteur Guillaume Cros (PES, France), who is the vice-president of the Occitanie regional council, calls on the European Commission to carry out a detailed assessment of the results of the current CAP against the objectives assigned to it in the EU treaties in terms of agricultural income and market stabilisation.
For the “future European food and agriculture policy after 2020”, he recommends measures to address the volatility of agricultural prices and to “stabilise agricultural prices at levels that enable farm incomes to remain in line with the provisions of the Treaty of Rome”.
As France proposed, Cros suggests that an annual precautionary savings fund be introduced, to be carried over to the following year if it is not spent in its entirety.
He also suggests: - a review of EU competition law so as to allow all stakeholders in a given sector, including consumers and public authorities, to decide on a fair distribution of the added value and profit margins along the value chain; - a review of EU law on awarding public contracts in the mass catering sector, incorporating a locality clause for food supply, with a view to promoting local food supply, a local market for organic farming products, and small-scale processing that provides rural jobs.
The draft opinion calls on the EU to bring in genuine cooperation agreements to replace bilateral free-trade agreements and economic partnerships with third countries. These agreements should have adequate resources and priority should be given to family farms, with a particular focus on local and regional markets and short supply chains.
Brexit. The draft opinion notes that the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU could lead to a fall in resources for the CAP.
Direct payments. The draft opinion calls for a switch from a direct payment per hectare approach to one based on capped direct payments per agricultural worker - understood as a person working directly on the farm.
Rural development. Environmental measures should be reinforced by means of: - mandatory crop rotation, including of leguminous plants, in order to make EU livestock less dependent on plant protein imports and reduce the use of nitrogen fertilisers; - maintaining the ban on ploughing permanent grassland in order to encourage biodiversity and carbon sequestration in the soil; - maintaining ecological focus areas in which the cultivation or use of plant protection products is prohibited, to help prevent biodiversity loss.
In addition, the draft opinion calls for financial rebalancing from the first pillar (direct aid) to the second (rural development).
Lastly, the draft opinion recommends that, in order to protect the rights of agricultural workers, any award of direct payments should be made conditional on meeting the social standards in place in the member states. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)