In the first votes, which began on Tuesday 20 October, the European Parliament adopted, by a large majority (more than two-thirds), compromise amendments, each involving three groups, on important elements of the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), including compulsory eco-schemes that amount to at least 30% of direct payments (see EUROPE 12585/2).
A motion to reject the CAP texts, tabled by the Greens/EFA group, was rejected (by 503 votes to 166, with 22 abstentions).
Although voting has not yet been completed, this majority position, which was reached following compromises between the major groups (EPP, S&D and Renew Europe on strategic plans and EPP, S&D and ECR on the ‘delivery model’), will be the position that the European Parliament will defend during negotiations with the EU Council of Ministers that will be starting in November with the Commission in attendance (trilogues).
The Council of the EU has also just reached a common position after lengthy negotiations (see other news).
The first votes show that the European Parliament has departed quite considerably from the Commission's original proposals, which date from 2018.
“Faced with a proposal that breaks up the CAP into 27 national policies and severs the relationship between Europe and the policy’s final beneficiary, the European Parliament voted by a very large majority for a policy with common agricultural, environmental and social goals, and a policy that does not confuse necessary flexibility with renationalisation”, said the Farm Europe think tank. Environmental NGOs have criticised the outcomes, which they say do not take into account the ‘European Green Deal’.
Strategic plans. Parliament’s decision to adopt the compromise amendments proposed by EPP, S&D and Renew Europe in the report by Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany) means that it has confirmed the principle of Member States being required to submit national strategic plans. They will have to be approved by the Commission.
With regard to eco-schemes (amendment ratified by 430 votes to 193, with 68 abstentions), 30% of direct payments will have to be allocated to the new ‘green’ measures under the first pillar of the CAP (direct payments).
Possible measures include carbon sequestration, reduction in the use of inputs, agroecology and precision farming. Delegated acts from the Commission should specify the criteria that will need to be met by measures under the eco-schemes.
Under the first pillar, any beneficiary of CAP payments will have to comply with cross-compliance rules (5% of arable land must be given over to environmentally valuable land and crop rotation must be carried out).
In each Member State, 60% of the funds under the first pillar of the CAP will have to be allocated to fund basic income support, redistribution support (a minimum of 6%), coupled support and operational programmes.
Member States will be able to use 10% of the first pillar for coupled support (2% for plant protein production programmes) and 3% for operational programme measures outside the traditional sectors (wine, fruit and vegetables, olives, etc.).
The intention is also that Member States will allot at least 30% of the allocation for advisory services and technical assistance.
The cap for direct payments is set at €100,000 per farm (excluding eco-schemes, young farmers and wage costs). As long as 12% of the first pillar is earmarked for redistribution support, a Member State is not required to apply this cap.
Potential transfers from the first to the second pillar are restricted to 12% of the first pillar and should be allocated to environmental actions. The maximum transfer from the second to the first pillar is 5% (limit raised to 15% for countries with national average direct payments below the European average).
With regard to the second pillar (rural development), 35% of the funds should be devoted to environmental measures and 30% to measures that fund investments and risk management tools.
The amendments allow for improvements to risk management tools that can be triggered at 20% of losses and benefit from 70% co-financing from the EU budget.
There is provision for a crisis reserve with a minimum of €400 million and a maximum of €1.5 billion per year (cumulative effect) to finance exceptional measures.
As part of the Common Organisation of the Markets (CMO), which was the subject of the report by Éric Andrieu (S&D, France), the intention is to improve organisation of the sectors, readjust the influence of farmers in the supply chain and potentially implement incentive plans to reduce production promptly.
Delivery model. The EPP, S&D and ECR compromise amendments were endorsed, despite the advice of the rapporteur, Ulrike Müller (Renew Europe, Germany). The position that was adopted is a departure from the Commission's proposals. There will still need to be monitoring of the eligibility of final beneficiaries of CAP payments.
Plans for monitoring the CAP’s effectiveness are based on a limited number of indicators that every two years will assess the results achieved against the confirmed objectives in the national strategic plans. The Commission’s proposals on administrative performance indicators were rejected. Voting will continue in plenary until Friday. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)