According to a study discussed by the European Parliament agriculture committee on Monday 10 July, the flexibility afforded EU countries in implementing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) leads to distortions of competition, particularly with regard to coupled payments.
The study concludes in general that the flexibility granted in the implementation of the CAP is sufficient. The study’s authors say that the proposed flexibility is a good way of taking account of the wide diversity of conditions across the countries and that it is more effective than if things were to be done at European level, said Tuomas Kuhmonen, one of the authors.
MEP Albert Dess (EPP, Germany) highlighted the risk of competition distortion, where some countries have coupled beef payments, for example, and others not.
“Flexibility is needed with some direct aid”, said Éric Andrieu (S&D, France). He wants a discussion to be opened on greater flexibility on coupled aid, for example, for mountainous regions. He also called for measures to make the rules on implementing the greening of aid less rigid.
John Stuart Agnew (UKIP, UK) said that the current system was far from satisfying everyone, which indicated that it is the least bad solution. He, too, criticised the complexity of the rules on greening. In the view of Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy), the study shows that there is a thin line between flexibility and repatriation. Esther Herranz García (EPP, Spain) opined that flexibility is working: “I wouldn’t go any further. The flexibility mustn’t be extended to market measures (common organisation of the market). Repatriation is our red line”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)