On Monday 1 March, at the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), Austria presented its ideas on the social dimension of the future common agricultural policy (CAP), ideas that have received the support of 12 EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Romania and Slovakia (see EUROPE 12666/18).
Austria (and these countries) oppose the social conditionality of direct aid proposed by the European Parliament and the options proposed by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Instead, Austria suggests including a social component in the ‘farm advisory services’ and evaluating after three years whether further measures are needed.
At the SCA meeting, the Netherlands and Estonia also apparently supported Austria’s ideas. Several delegations, including Croatia and Lithuania, reportedly stressed that the ideas contained in the Austrian paper were “the maximum” acceptable on this subject.
On the other side, France and Spain reportedly supported one of the options presented by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, namely ‘social conditionality conditional on Court rulings’.
The Portuguese Presidency is reported to have indicated that discussions would continue on the issue of social cross-compliance in the CAP. The next Agriculture Council, devoted to the reform of the CAP, will take place on 22 and 23 March. A ‘super trilogue’ with the participation of the Portuguese Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes, will take place immediately afterward to make progress in the CAP negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement at the end of May (see other news). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)