EU agriculture ministers will meet in Brussels on 19 February to continue their consideration of the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Having, in January, discussed the new implementation model proposed by the European Commission in its communication published in November 2017 (see EUROPE 11915), which considerably increases the extent of subsidiarity, they will, this time, go into closer detail on direct payments, green payments and rural development, to prepare their position on the Commission proposals. The Bulgarian Presidency hopes to have this position agreed at the meeting of 19 March, with the Commission due to present its formal legislative proposals in June, after the European Parliament has adopted its stance.
Ministers will also discuss the bio-economy and will be briefed by the Commission on the “protein plan” due to be published at the end of the year and on the launch of a rural Africa working group.
Coupled support and environmental measures. Ministers will give their responses to two questions on direct payments already drafted by their national experts (see EUROPE 11957): How can direct payments be designed and targeted in future to deliver fairer and more tangible results for farmers across the whole of the EU? And: How can the design of coupled support be improved?
The Commission is keen on a comprehensive overhaul of environmental payments (see EUROPE 11961), and ministers will be asked to consider how at and what level these measures should be regulated in order to achieve a results-based approach and help reach common objectives, while ensuring fair competition conditions and a high level of ambition on the environment.
Lastly, the third strand of this discussion is rural development where the member states want, above all, a simplification of the rules. Ministers will discuss the question of how to pursue modernisation and simplification of rural development policy.
Two “other business” items will also be considered in this discussion on the CAP. Firstly, the Polish delegation will present a joint statement on the new CAP, adopted by the Višegrad group of countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia) and Croatia on 25 January, which stresses simplification, retention of voluntary coupled payments and strengthened crisis management tools. Secondly, Poland will present a paper in which it argues the case for the contribution of cohesion policy and other EU policies to rural development after 2020.
Bio-economy and protein plan. Over an informal lunch following the morning’s debates, ministers will discuss “strategic choices” for the CAP, which will potentially lead them onto budgetary issues.
In the afternoon, ministers will discuss the role of agriculture as part of the review of the EU bio-economy strategy. The Commission plans to bring forward proposals for revision of this strategy, which was launched in 2012, in the third quarter of this year.
The commission will also inform ministers of the EU protein plan which it is preparing for the end of the year (see EUROPE 11830).
Lastly, it will inform ministers on the launch of a rural Africa working group, an expert group which will assist the Commission in strengthening the EU-Africa partnership on farming and food. This initiative will be instrumental in implementing the goals of the Valletta summit on tackling the deep-rooted causes of migration. (Original version in French)