The coordinators of the political groups of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture decided on Wednesday 4 September to submit the three reports adopted in committee under the previous legislature on the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to the European Parliament plenary, rather at the end of the year.
“The Agriculture Committee today decided to ask the European Parliament Conference of Presidents to allow us to resume our work on the basis of the reports approved last April” by the outgoing Agriculture Committee, said Agriculture Committee Chairman Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany) (see EUROPE 12303/8).
The goal is to allow new MEPs to table amendments, “but at the same time, to save time and give greater clarity to our farmers, we want to avoid relaunching the debate on the future of the CAP from scratch”, added Mr Lins.
The reports by Esther Herranz García (EPP, Spain) on the ‘strategic plans’, Eric Andrieu (S&D, France) on common market organisation and Ulrike Müller (ALDE, Germany) on the ‘horizontal regulation’ should be forwarded for a plenary vote in Parliament, but not before November, according to sources. Parliament could decide to refer the reports back to the Agriculture Committee, in order to allow new MEPs to draft new compromise amendments. The alternative would be a direct plenary vote on the three reports and the amendments that would be tabled.
Decision on 19 September in Parliament’s Conference of Presidents. The Committee on Agriculture’s recommendation will now be submitted to Parliament’s Conference of Committee Chairs and then forwarded to Parliament’s Conference of Presidents. The meeting of the Conference of Committee Chairs is scheduled for 17 September. The decision of Parliament’s Conference of Presidents is expected on 19 September.
Finnish Minister of Agriculture Jari Leppä, who presented the matters of priority of the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council, stressed that he would do his utmost to advance the negotiations on this dossier as far as possible. He even mentioned the possibility for Member States to reach a general approach on the post-2020 CAP proposals by the end of December. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)