On Thursday 8October, the German Presidency of the Council of the EU drew up a compromise proposal relating to the Regulation on strategic plans for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which allocates a minimum of 20% of direct payments to environmental and climate actions (mandatory eco-schemes).
This percentage of the first pillar to be allocated to eco-schemes will remain at 20% for the whole period (2023-2027, as 2020 and 2021 will be CAP transitional years).
This minimum percentage will be ‘indicative’ for the first two years (during the ‘pilot phase’, States will be able to reallocate unused funds, if they need to) and mandatory from 2025 onwards.
By way of contrast, the German Presidency of the Council of the EU is no longer proposing, as it was in the previous compromise text, to reduce the share of compulsory eco-schemes for those EU Member States that spend more than 30% of rural development expenditure (EAFRD) on climate and environmental actions.
The proposed text confirms the possibility of capping payments at €100,000 and the possibility of degressing (reducing) payments exceeding €60,000: - up to 25% for the tranche between €60,000 and €75,000; - up to 50% for the tranche between €75,000 and €90,000; - up to 85% above €90,000.
Experts from the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will discuss this text on Monday 12 October.
EU agriculture ministers will try to reach a ‘general approach’ on the post-2020 CAP in Luxembourg on 20 October.
The European Parliament will vote in plenary on the amendments on this issue the same week. The political groups in the European Parliament are currently negotiating compromises. We are told that the figure of 30% for eco-schemes is being shared, but it might still change.
The German Presidency of the Council of the EU’s note on strategic plans can be found at: https://bit.ly/30Qh0PD (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)