Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said on Thursday 30 April that he is in favour of mobilising the €478 million agricultural crisis reserve to provide further assistance to sectors in difficulty due to the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Several MEPs are in favour, including Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy), Eric Andrieu (S&D, France), and Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium).
Members of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee consider the aid package of 22 April (see EUROPE 12475/19) to be insufficient. They lamented the lack of additional funds for wine and fruit and vegetables as well as the exclusion of veal, pork, and poultry from private storage.
Effective the week of 4 May. After the green light from national experts, the Commission formally adopted nine regulations on 30 April. They will be published in the Official Journal for the week of 4 May and will enter into force at that time.
Four of the acts concern aid for private storage (skimmed milk powder, butter, beef, veal, mutton and lamb, and goatmeat). Two of the regulations are intended to stabilise the potato and flower markets. Others concern production planning in the milk sector, the validity of authorisations for vineyard planting, and derogations for the year 2020.
Some MEPs threatened not to approve certain delegated acts if the Commission did not complete the aid package.
Choices to make. Janusz Wojciechowski acknowledged that the package “is probably not fully satisfactory”, but insisted that the Commission had chosen to help “as many people as possible where the problems are the most serious”.
Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany), chair of Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, asked Mr Wojciechowski to be bolder.
Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy) said the €80 million budget proposed for the private storage of milk and meat was “totally insufficient”. He asked to start the debate on the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy in the fall, but to talk about organic farming as soon as possible.
Mr De Castro called for an increase in EU co-financing for the produce support programmes.
Ulrike Müller (Renew Europe, Germany) fears a cut in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget in the EU’s 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). “We believe in the European Green Deal, but we need the funds to match our ambitions”, she said.
Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany) advocated a mechanism to manage the supply of milk and lamented that the EU is opening its doors to meat from Mercosur countries.
Mr Wojciechowski believes that some sectors should not be so dependent on exports in the future. “We must take care of local production”, he said. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)