The Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU has prepared drafting suggestions for the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on 12 November regarding some elements of the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) proposals, specifically environmental and climate-related aspects, and direct payments.
These suggestions involve provisions in the regulation on CAP strategic plans.
The Finnish Presidency is also continuing in its efforts to make progress with the negotiations on the post-2020 CAP. The Agriculture Council on 18 November will discuss CAP expenditure on climate-related action in particular (see EUROPE 12364/6).
With respect to green architecture, the Presidency is suggesting that the aim of allocating 30% of expenditure under the second pillar of the CAP (rural development) to climate-friendly actions should be removed. Instead, it suggests that Member States allocate a certain percentage of their total CAP envelope (pillars 1 and 2) to these climate-related objectives. It suggested that this percentage should be set later, after the negotiations on the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027. The Presidency pointed out that the question of the mandatory nature of eco-schemes (environmental programmes) remains “open”.
On the subject of direct payments, the Finnish Presidency pointed out that EU countries are divided on the issue of coupled support. Some Member States would like to see more sectors covered, while the so-called 'liberal' countries want to keep the status quo or phase out coupled support. The Presidency considers that the current text constitutes a balanced compromise between these two views.
With regard to complementary redistributive support, the Presidency pointed out that Member States may only pay this aid to farms smaller than the limit set by the Member State. This limit may be based either on the number of hectares or on the economic size of the farm.
To consult the Finnish Presidency’s documents on the subjects of: - direct payments, go to: http://bit.ly/2K0Uprd; - climate-related aspects, go to: http://bit.ly/2NQenWA (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)