On Monday 15 February, the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council presented the Member States with compromise proposals on the new delivery model for the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The package, which was not greeted with enthusiasm by the experts on the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), is the result of the latest negotiations between EU institutions on the proposal on strategic plans (see EUROPE 12657/5).
The proposal includes four points: - the benchmark for performance clearance will be “the operations selected for which payments have been made” (as set in the Council of the EU’s general approach); - it will possible to set maximum planned average unit amounts for rural development interventions (as suggested by the Council of the EU); - the Council of the EU will agree to delete references to performance clearance and performance review in a number of the regulation’s articles; - in exchange, EU Member States will agree to reduce the permitted gap between target values and performance review results, bringing them closer to Parliament’s position (tolerance levels of 35% in 2025 and 25% in 2027).
The package received mixed reactions from the EU delegations. Several expressed their reluctance to support this proposal now and stated that they preferred to evaluate the final package on the new delivery model.
The final document following the 10 February trilogue can be found at: http://bit.ly/3pqmqKr
The outcomes of the latest trilogues can be found at: http://bit.ly/3qvrZIY
In addition, at the SCA meeting, Poland asked the European Commission if it was possible to obtain funds from the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (the post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan) to support projects related to the agri-food sector and rural development.
The Polish request can be found at: https://bit.ly/37hHgFS (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)