The EU institutions are meeting on Friday, 26 March, to try to make significant progress in the negotiations on reforming the common agricultural policy (CAP).
This ‘super trilogue’ will be held in the presence of Portuguese Minister of Agriculture Maria do Céu Antunes, whose mandate has been adjusted for the talks; Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski; and the European Parliament’s negotiating team: Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany), rapporteur on the Strategic Plan Regulation; Eric Andrieu (S&D, France), rapporteur on common market organisation (CMO); and Ulrike Müller (Renew Europe, Germany), rapporteur on the Regulation on the financing, management, and monitoring [of the CAP].
A full agenda awaits the negotiators, with discussions on four topics (12685/20):
the targeting of support, including the definition of ‘active farmer’, capping and degressivity of support, redistributive payments, and internal convergence;
the ‘New Delivery Model’, involving performance clearance, biennial performance review, tolerance levels, paying agencies and certification bodies, annual performance monitoring, and error correction;
the Horizontal Regulation, involving conditionality and a control system, information relating to beneficiaries, and the ARACHNE data mining tool; and
the markets, concerning wine, producer organisations, supply regulation, and market management.
The Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU submitted a compromise text for each of these four topics after the ‘Agriculture’ Council debates on 22 and 23 March (see EUROPE 12685/20 and 12684/2).
With regard to strategic plans (https://bit.ly/31k1hIc ), the Portuguese Presidency suggests taking into account some of the European Parliament’s demands concerning a mandatory definition of ‘active farmer’, an (optional) definition of ‘new farmer’, an internal convergence of support so as to reach 85% in 2026 (75% in the EU Council’s initial position and 100% for the European Parliament), and a 3% share of direct payments reserved for young farmers (but support for young farmers would remain optional). On the subjects of capping and degressivity of support or even redistributive payments, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council is sticking to the Council of the EU’s initial position on the optional nature of these systems for targeting support.
Regarding market management, the compromises on wine have been confirmed, while new issues are open to debate, including supply management for PDO/PGI (extension of the current rules for wine, cheese, and ham to all agricultural products with PDO/PGI designations).
As for the New Delivery Model, adjustments are expected, but the Council of the EU and the European Commission have made it clear that returning to the compliance-based model is not acceptable. The EPP, S&D, and ECR groups had previously presented a compromise text on the New Delivery Model (https://bit.ly/3souRrY ).
The last compromise text from the Portuguese Presidency concerns provisions of the Horizontal Regulation.
The delicate subject of eco-schemes (environmental programmes) is left for the end of the negotiations between the institutions, expected in May or June, to conclude a final agreement on the post-2020 CAP.
Link to the four compromise texts from the Portuguese Presidency: https://bit.ly/3d6lqXR (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)