The Special Committee on Agriculture approved a new Council mandate on Monday 18 September to try to wrap up the discussions with the other EU institutions on the regulation simplifying certain of the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The Council mandate on the so-called omnibus regulation remains virtually unchanged from the one of April of this year (see EUROPE 11863 and 11857). It offers a few concessions that take it closer to the European Parliament position but only on measures to simplify certain provisions on the greening of direct aid.
On the other issues that are of importance to the Parliament (producer organisations, lowering the losses threshold for insurance and unfair trading practices), the member states have stuck with the initial mandate.
Further sessions of agricultural negotiations between the institutions are scheduled for 27 September and 12 October. Thereafter a “horizontal” trialogue dealing with the whole of the omnibus regulation will take place on 25 October. The agreement will then have to be approved by the two competent committees of Parliament (budgets and budgetary control) and finally the text needs to be put to the vote of the whole Parliament in plenary session in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)