Experts from EU Member States on Monday 25 March called for more flexibility in the implementation of the proposed 'green architecture' provisions of the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (see EUROPE 12216/6).
The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) prepared on Monday for the 15 April debate in the EU Council on the important topic of 'green architecture' of the future CAP.
Many delegations (France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and others) welcomed the Commission's intention to strengthen the environmental ambition of the CAP.
But several of them, such as Poland and Ireland, stressed the importance of aligning this environmental ambition with the future CAP budget, while the Commission expects agricultural appropriations to fall during the EU's next multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027. Increased environmental ambition should be accompanied by an increased budget, as Hungary, Austria, Croatia and Malta have also said.
As regards the practical implementation of the new green architecture, around ten delegations called for simpler rules, offering Member States more flexibility in terms of aid conditionality (Estonia, Sweden, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, in particular) and environmental programmes (including Spain, Hungary, Austria and Poland), as well as a higher level of subsidiarity.
Several delegations (such as Denmark, the Netherlands or Finland) asked to define a less demanding 'baseline' for aid conditionality, but others, such as France, wanted to maintain this level of ambition.
In addition, several Member States (e. g. Italy, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria) have requested that the rules on aid conditionality should not apply to small farmers.
As regards 'green programmes' (called 'eco-regimes'), some countries prefer them to be optional (including Italy, Portugal and Bulgaria), while others (the Netherlands, Spain, in particular) support the Commission's proposal (mandatory programmes for Member States).
The issue of complementarity between ecological programmes and agri-environmental/climatic measures was also raised, with some delegations requesting flexibility between the two pillars of the CAP. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)