The European Parliament's Agriculture Committee finalised its work on the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by adopting (28 votes in favour, 7 against and 2 abstentions), on Monday 8 April in Brussels, the report by Ulrike Müller (ALDE, Germany) on financing, management and controls (see EUROPE 12227/2).
63 compromise amendments (covering almost 600 amendments), most of them adopted by members of the Agriculture Committee, had been negotiated by Ms Müller with the main political groups in the European Parliament.
The agricultural crises reserve should be financed in addition to the CAP direct payments and rural development funding. Its initial budget should amount to €400 million. Further funds could be added each year together with any unused money from the previous year, until it reaches €1.5 billion. If necessary, the so-called financial discipline mechanism, which reduces direct payments for farmers, could be activated, but only as a last resort and by excluding the first €2,000 of payments.
Tougher penalties. If beneficiaries repeatedly do not comply with cross compliance rules (compliance with environmental, animal welfare or product quality rules), they could lose 10% of their payment entitlements (up to 5% today). Beneficiaries would continue to lose 15% of the amount to which they are entitled if they intentionally flouted the rules.
MEPs endorsed the shift to a new performance-based system. They provided for Member States to report to the Commission on their achievements once every 2 years (the Commission proposed every year) to avoid overburdening national administrations and farmers. However, in the event of deficient national control systems, the Commission should carry out risk-based on-the-spot checks.
The European Parliament's Agriculture Committee has thus completed its work on the future CAP and it will be up to the next Parliament to decide whether to submit this package to plenary or whether work should start again in the next Parliament Agriculture Committee.
Last week, the committee voted on the CAP's strategic plans and the common market organisation (CMO). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)