On Wednesday 17 February, EFFAT (the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions) and other organisations, including Amnesty International, called on the EU institutions to include a social component in the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The signatories to the letter (https://bit.ly/37pT20S ) addressed to the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament believe that ‘social conditionality’, which was proposed by the European Parliament, should be retained and enhanced in the text on the CAP strategic plans.
In particular, they call for CAP direct payments to be made conditional on compliance with the working conditions laid down in national and EU law and International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.
The Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU has put forward ideas on ‘social conditionality’ in the CAP in the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), but a majority of states are still guarded about how it could be implemented at EU level.
The Portuguese Presidency put forward the following options, amongst others: social conditionality, a reference to working conditions or implementation conditions.
The recent suggestions from the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU can be found at: http://bit.ly/37qqCns (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)