Reacting to the European Commission’s proposals on the Common Agricultural Policy after 2020, Karl-Heinz Lambertz (PES, Belgium), President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), said on Friday 1 June that the drastic cuts in the rural development budget and the increase in the co-financing levels of the rural development policy “will make it impossible for farming to continue throughout the EU” (see EUROPE 12032).
CoR rapporteur on the future of the CAP Guillaume Cros (PES, France) said that the proposed regulation on the common organisation of markets “will not be enough to prevent sectoral crises. The Commission will have to offer farmers more effective and less costly market regulation tools than triggering crisis measures after the event”.
The CoR welcomes the efforts on fairer allocation of direct payments among the countries of the EU but wonders “about the real effectiveness” of the proposals on the capping and degressivity of aid. It calls on the Commission to assess the percentage of aid that could effectively be redistributed to small farmers in each of the EU countries by means of these new redistribution mechanisms.
The Commission is proposing a reduction of payments from €60,000 and compulsory capping for payments above €100,000 per farm. The amounts thus freed up will be redistributed within each member state either through a redistributive direct payment or rural development. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)