The German EU Council Presidency hopes to make progress in the negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by the end of the year.
After the first meeting of negotiations (European Parliament/EU Council/Commission) on 10 November, which covered all three pieces of legislation, the next trilogues will be: - 19 November on the strategic plan regulations; - 2 December on the common organisation of the markets; - and 4 December on financing, management and control (see EUROPE 12596/13).
“We are running out of time”, said German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner in a video conference with the European Parliament Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany), on Wednesday 11 November. According to the minister, negotiations must be concluded in the first quarter of 2021, to allow time for the States to draft the national strategic plans and for the Commission to approve them.
The talks started in the presence of the Commission Vice-President in charge of the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans. The Commission is showing that the CAP needs to take a real green turn. The Commission states that it considers “the CAP as one of the central policies of the European Green Deal “ and warns that the negotiation process will be conducted “at the highest level, in close coordination with other policy areas”.
The European Parliament’s negotiator on Strategic plans regulation, Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany), admitted that “we should all be ready to compromise if we want to reach an agreement by the end of June next year”.
Among the issues that will be discussed most are: the share of direct aid to be spent on eco-schemes, the modalities of capping direct aid, the new control rules as well as the new cross-compliance provisions.
The new CAP will enter into force from 1 January 2023, after a two-year transitional period. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)