Negotiations among the EU institutions on the agriculture strand of the text of the omnibus regulation are in the doldrums, as witnessed by the unproductive trialogue meeting on 7 September.
“After five hours of negotiations, in spite of our enormous effort, we have got nowhere”, said Parliament co-rapporteur Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) after the trialogue meeting of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the EU on the omnibus regulation (see EUROPE 11857).
Parliament wants to seize the opportunity of discussions on this text which simplifies the rules to undertake a mini-reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The member states and the Commission want to move fast and do not want to be caught up in lengthy negotiations. Some Parliamentary amendments on greening could, however, be acceptable to the Council provided that they result in simpler rules and do not water down the environmental impact of the demands of the greening of aid.
The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) is expected to adopt a revised Council negotiating position on Monday 18 September, in order to try to finalise discussions with Parliament.
However, on the issues that are important for Parliament (producer organisations, lowering the losses threshold for insurance, and unfair trading practices), the member states refuse to make any concessions, at least not in this omnibus text.
“The time is pressing. If we are to have new rules in place at the beginning of next year, we have only a few weeks left to achieve a compromise”, De Castro warns. He calls for open minds from all parties and asks the Commission and Council to be prepared to make efforts, otherwise he threatens to leave the negotiating table.
Timetable. Two further sessions of inter-institutional talks on agriculture are scheduled, the first on 27 September and the second on 12 October. Thereafter a “horizontal” trialogue on the whole of the omnibus regulation will take place on 25 October. The agreement will then have to be approved by the two competent Parliamentary committees (budgets and budgetary control) before the text is put to the vote in plenary session in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)