Discussions at expert level in the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), on Monday 5 October, once again confirmed their differences on whether future environmental programmes should be mandatory or not (see EUROPE 12570/11).
On Monday, experts from the EU Member States mainly discussed the editorial suggestions of the German EU Council Presidency (https://bit.ly/34uSO69 ) on the regulation on strategic plans for the CAP.
The German Presidency continues to suggest a compulsory system of eco-schemes with a minimum budget for these measures.
Delegations are divided on these issues and some of them said they regretted the lack of a real percentage on this minimum budget (this figure will probably be presented later in the negotiations).
There are, on the one hand, those in favour of mandatory eco-schemes in the first pillar (direct aid) to which a minimum budget must be devoted and, on the other hand, those who call for maximum flexibility, preferring to use agri-environmental measures in the second pillar (rural development).
Some countries reiterated their concerns about the risk of losing funds if the eco-schemes are not sufficiently used. In this context, the German Presidency has been inspired by ideas from Austria to reduce the percentage of the minimum budget devoted to first-pillar eco-schemes for those countries where a significant proportion of second-pillar expenditure is devoted to agri-environmental measures. This suggestion was welcomed by delegations such as Spain, Finland, Croatia, Sweden and Greece.
Conditionality. Some delegations (Greece, Cyprus, Ireland, Czech Republic) supported the introduction of a simplified system of controls applied to small farmers.
As regards direct payments, several countries (including Italy, Romania, Spain, Slovenia and Poland) supported the Presidency text on ‘coupled’ aid (13% of the direct aid envelope, +2% for plant proteins).
EU agriculture ministers will try to reach a ‘general approach’ on the post-2020 CAP on 20 October. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)