Negotiators from the European Parliament, the Croatian Presidency of the Council and the European Commission reached partial agreement on Tuesday 30 June on the second part of the transitional measures of the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) necessary due to the delay in the negotiations on the future regulation which should have entered into force at the beginning of 2021 (see EUROPE 12494/13).
This transition period should be spread over 2 years, despite the Commission’s reluctance to limit it to a single year. These rules will extend, from 1 January 2021, the broad lines of the current CAP, which will be financed by the EU’s 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), once finalised.
Some adaptations. MEPs are pleased to have succeeded in convincing the Council of the EU and the Commission to “allow Member States to facilitate farmers’ access to compensation for significant income losses and for losses caused by adverse climatic events, outbreaks of animal or plant diseases or pest infestations” by lowering the trigger threshold for these schemes from 30 to 20% of losses.
Parliament has also obtained a relaxation of the rules on State Aid.
As requested by Parliament and the EU Council, the duration of the new multi-annual rural development projects for organic farming, animal welfare and agri-environmental and climate measures may be extended to 5 years (their normal duration) instead of 3 years as originally proposed by the Commission.
To be finalised. MEPs would have liked to introduce a change to the current operation of the agricultural crisis reserve so that it could be used effectively. But as this point depends on the outcome of the budget talks, Parliament simply attaches a non-binding political declaration to the text that the crisis reserve should be well funded and cumulative from one year to the next in order to increase its volume as and when needed.
The provisionally agreed text still needs to be updated with the figures of the future MFF, once an agreement on it has been reached.
Negotiators will then meet again to finalise these transitional measures, which can then be approved by Parliament and the EU Council before entering into force.
A first set of transitional rules, covering flexibility between CAP pillars, had been agreed at the end of 2019.