Negotiations between representatives of the three EU institutions (EU Council, European Parliament, Commission) on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are progressing slowly, MEPs said on Monday 11 January (see EUROPE 12632/18).
Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture has taken stock of the status of the talks on the three texts relating to the next CAP.
Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany), rapporteur on strategic plans, said that discussions on green architecture continue to stall on several points. Firstly, the share of the first pillar budget devoted to ‘eco-schemes’. Peter Jahr ruled out any middle way between the EU Council’s position (20% of direct payments devoted to eco-schemes) and that of Parliament (30%), “because Parliament knows that 25% would be far too little”.
Differences then persist on the list of ‘eco-schemes’ and on some ‘Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions’ (GAEC), especially on GAEC 9, which relates to the percentage of non-productive land. On this subject, there would be “several different points of view” between Parliament, the EU Council and the Commission. Peter Jahr welcomed the compromises reached on GAEC 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 (on crop rotation) and GAEC 10.
A conclusion of the negotiations in the first quarter is still possible, but this is an “extremely ambitious” objective, Peter Jahr acknowledged. The next trilogue on strategic plans is scheduled for 22 January. Five trilogues will take place up to the end of March.
Horizontal regulation. The rapporteur on this text, Ulrike Müller (Renew Europe, Germany), reiterated the EU Council and Commission’s criticism of the plenary’s position (which Ms Müller contested), which restores a share of ‘compliance’ measures in the new implementation model.
According to Ms Müller, the EU Council and the Commission considered, during the trilogue of 18 December, that the ‘hybrid’ model defended by Parliament would be “unfeasible”, that it would run counter to the objective of simplifying the CAP and that it would add additional costs and workload.
She also reported progress on the subject of governance and considered a compromise on the transparency of CAP aid recipients possible. The next trilogue on the horizontal regulation is scheduled for 29 January, with conditionality on the agenda.
On 25 January, the Agriculture Ministers of the EU countries will take stock of the status of the inter-institutional talks on the CAP. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)