On Tuesday 23 March, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, which has been given a “robust and more flexible” mandate, said that it hoped to finalise an agreement with the European Parliament on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by the end of June.
After two days of Council of the EU meetings (see EUROPE 12684/2), Portuguese minister Maria do Céu Antunes stressed that she had obtained the necessary flexibility from the Member States to continue negotiations with the European Parliament on the post-2020 CAP, particularly during the ‘super trilogue’ on Friday 26 March. She predicted “a final agreement this semester”.
The Portuguese Presidency drafted four compromise packages on the three texts on reforming the CAP (strategic plans, new delivery model, horizontal regulation, common market organisation).
The super trilogue is expected to address all of the important issues (including eco-schemes, the new delivery model, the definition of an ‘active farmer’, internal aid convergence, capping and degression of aid, redistribution payments and market measures).
Janusz Wojciechowski, the Commissioner for Agriculture, said that the European Commission supported the proposed compromises and that he was “sure” that an agreement on this issue would be reached by the institutions “in May”.
New delivery model. The ministers reiterated their preference for a ‘new delivery model’ (in the Strategic Plans Regulation and the Horizontal Regulation) that offers Member States sufficient flexibility in how they design their financial interventions.
A number of ministers (including those from Spain, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic) opposed the European Parliament’s position in favour of a two-tier system (compliance and performance obligations). The Council of the EU is concerned that the administrative burden will increase to a level that is unacceptable to Member States.
Market management. Antunes explained that, relatively speaking, the positions of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament were aligned with regard to wine (a compromise on extending the vine planting authorisation scheme until 2045) and geographical indications, but are still a long way apart on crisis and market management measures.
The ministers called on the Portuguese Presidency to remain close to the principles agreed in the Council of the EU’s general approach (of October 2020) and to respect the EU’s commitments at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The ministers were divided on whether to take into account the European Parliament’s amendments to the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation.
The ‘liberal’ countries (Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands), and Estonia and Malta have said that they do not accept the European Parliament’s ideas on market management measures or on trade.
The European Parliament’s proposals “conflict with the course we have been following for 20 years”, the German delegation said. Germany also rejects ideas aimed at creating new crisis instruments. However, it supported the European Parliament’s ideas on voluntary quantity reduction (used during the milk crisis).
The current system is good enough, according to Denmark, which refused to accept new production management measures.
France, however, called for “reactive and flexible tools” in the event of a crisis. “The European Parliament has put forward some interesting proposals in this respect”, which the Council of the EU needs to take into account, particularly in relation to market observatories and early warning mechanisms, said the French representative. France also defended “reciprocity of environmental and health standards” that products imported from third countries must meet. Luxembourg and Poland in particular supported these European Parliament amendments on reciprocity of standards.
“The Council of the EU needs to be flexible” with regard to the European Parliament’s demands for market and crisis measures, the Polish minister also said.
Spain also supported some of the changes requested by the European Parliament: - on trade with non-Member States (protection of sensitive markets such as bananas and tomatoes); - crisis measures; - new products eligible for private storage aid (table olives).
Croatia said it accepted some of the European Parliament’s ideas, particularly with regard to giving farmers more power in the food supply chain.
Wojciechowski felt that the debate had shown that the current market measures have worked well. He stressed the need to take WTO rules into account, even though some countries are calling for changes to international rules.
Horizontal regulation. The Portuguese Presidency has drafted the following compromise ideas (https://bit.ly/31dyS6L ) on this text.
A compromise proposal by the European Parliament would require beneficiaries of agricultural funds to provide all of the information needed to identify them, including, where appropriate, the group to which they belong. The Presidency suggests taking a favourable position on this European Parliament compromise proposal.
The Commission's proposal would make it mandatory to use the ‘Arachne’ system as a single data mining tool to verify and store information on organisations and individuals receiving EU funding. The Portuguese Presidency suggests that, initially, the use of this tool should be optional for Member States during a transition period.
With regard to the Member States’ conditionality control effort, the Portuguese Presidency suggests keeping to the 1% of beneficiaries for the control sample, as proposed by the Commission.
Several ministers welcomed some of these ideas (optional Arachne, increased information on beneficiaries of the funds) and several asked, with regard to conditionality control, for 1% not be exceeded. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)