The Agriculture Ministers of the European Union, meeting by videoconference for the last time under the Croatian Presidency of the Council on Monday 29 June, generally welcomed the progress made in the discussions on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) over the last 6 months, despite difficult circumstances (between the lack of agreement on the multiannual financial framework and the coronavirus pandemic).
Germany, which will take over the Presidency of the EU Agriculture Council from 1 July, plans to conclude the negotiations before the end of the year.
Concerns of the Commission. However, their exchange of views showed that discussions were still very open on the two main novelties of this CAP reform: – the new implementation model (giving more subsidiarity to Member States); – and green architecture (which should reinforce the environmental and climate ambition of the regulation).
Most ministers confirmed that political as well as technical work remains to be done before the right balance can be struck between regulatory simplification and ambitious environmental objectives.
European Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski expressed concern about the willingness of Member States to reduce the number of indicators for monitoring the results of the CAP. He also recalled that he was in favour of fixing a percentage of each Member State’s first pillar envelope to be devoted to the new eco-schemes in order to ensure a common level of requirement in this area.
The Commissioner also stressed the importance of keeping rural development policy “at the top of the political agenda”. He also sent a letter to all Ministers to this effect, reminding them of the “essential role played by rural areas”. In the second half of the year, he will launch a broad public consultation on this issue.
The role of market management tools. The French and Spanish Ministers, Didier Guillaume and Luis Planas, also highlighted the role of the single CMO’s market management tools in dealing with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Covid-19 crisis has shown that these market management tools need to be strengthened”, Mr Planas stressed. Especially to make them more responsive.
Several delegations – Greece, Italy, Malta, Cyprus and Poland – also reiterated their opposition to applying cross-compliance rules to small producers. A measure that they feel would only add unnecessary administrative burden.
Germany is aiming for an agreement in October. Germany, which takes over the EU Council at the beginning of July, intends to reach a common position of the Member States on CAP reform as early as October, German Minister Julia Klöckner said.
The new green architecture of the CAP should be discussed in parallel with the ‘farm to fork’ strategy, she said. This item will be the subject of an exchange of views at the Agriculture Council on 20 July in Brussels.
But, Julia Klöckner warned, “farmers must be fully involved in these decisions, which must not be made against them”. “It will therefore be necessary to assess the social and economic impact of our decisions to ensure that they are applicable on the ground”,she added.
If a political agreement (‘general approach’) in the EU Council is reached in October, the incoming German Presidency intends to start discussions with the European Parliament and the Commission in order to finalise negotiations on this dossier before the end of 2020.
But before that, EU leaders will have to agree by then on the EU’s 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework.