Sixty MEPs called, in a letter sent on Tuesday 7 July to the Commissioners concerned, for the additional agricultural funds provided for in the post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan to be made available as soon as possible, without waiting until 2023.
The MEPs, among whom were Irène Tolleret (Renew Europe, France), Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy), Anne Sander (EPP, France), Asim Ademov (EPP, Bulgaria) and Juan Ignacio Zoido (EPP, Spain), reminded Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski and Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn that, on 27 May, the European Commission had adopted its proposal on the Next Generation EU budget, which includes an amount of €15 billion for the Rural Development policy.
“Although the financial provisions proposed for the next MFF are more ambitious that the ones announced in 2018, they do not compensate the reduction of the support compared to the current period”, the MEPs note in the letter seen by EUROPE.
Transitional period of two years. Furthermore, according to the initial proposal, the €15 billion would only be available as of 2022, once the new CAP’s 'strategic plans' are in place, in order to make a link with the new environmental objectives.
The date of 2022 corresponds to the end of the one-year transitional period (between the old and the new CAP) which was initially proposed by the Commission. However, the Interinstitutional Agreement on the CAP transitional measures provides for a two-year transition between the current CAP and the future one (see EUROPE 12517/10).
The MEPs who signed the letter said they consider it “unacceptable” that this new allocation would remain directly connected with the new strategic plans, since they would not be in place before 2023. “This would delay by two years the use of such a temporary financial instrument and mean that the EU would have lost the opportunity to help the farmers in due time and avoid many possible bankruptcies”, the letter says.
According to the MEPs, the current CAP already contains “sufficient tools” to start preparing farmers for the transition promoted under the new Green Deal as from 2021, particularly through the agri-environmental measures of the second pillar (rural development), “and, therefore, we do not consider it necessary to wait until the adoption of the new strategic plans” of the CAP.
MEPs are calling on Commissioners Wojciechowski and Hahn to “do their utmost” to find a solution in the ongoing negotiations of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)