Negotiations between the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission on Friday 26 March yielded positive results on some elements of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The negotiating teams of the EU Council and Parliament managed, during this ‘super trilogue’ chaired by the Portuguese Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes, to find agreement on certain elements of the future strategic plans of the CAP, the horizontal regulation (control, financing and management) and the text on the common market organisation (CMO).
Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski represented the Commission.
At a press conference, Ms do Céu Antunes said that she had presented several compromise texts on the three CAP reform texts. “We were able to reach an agreement on many points”, she esteemed. The three EU institutions are committed to finding a final compromise by the end of the half-year (end of June). “European farmers are waiting for the results of this reform”, she added.
Member States will discuss next week, at technical level, agreements in principle on the New Delivery Model and on wine, among other things.
The Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU had an adapted mandate, after the last Agriculture Council, on the New Delivery Model, the targeting of aid, controls and management and finally the single CMO (see EUROPE 12686/22).
On the targeting of agricultural aid, positions remain divergent between Parliament and the EU Council. The Portuguese Presidency’s offer was: a compulsory definition of ‘active farmer’, an (optional) definition of ‘new farmers’, internal convergence of aids to reach 85% approximation in 2026 (75% in the EU Council’s initial position and 100% for Parliament) and a 3% share of direct payments reserved for young farmers to be shared between the two pillars of the CAP.
In return, the EU Council asked that the voluntary nature of capping and degressivity of aid and the redistributive payment be maintained. Positions have not changed on these issues.
Another important point of contention between the Council of the EU and the Parliament is the New Delivery Model. Parliament called for the maintenance of a degree of compliance monitoring (not just performance monitoring) to ensure the commonality of the CAP. In order to give guarantees to Parliament, the compromise foresees, among other things, a biennial review of performance and deviation percentages of strategic plans from the targets of 35% in 2025 and 25% in 2027. The ‘super trilogue’ has made progress.
“Faced with the risks of renationalisation in the New Delivery Model, we have succeeded in obtaining essential guarantees to maintain the common character of the future CAP and ensure equal treatment of European farmers. The rules will be monitored reliably”, said Anne Sander MEP (EPP, France).
On the one hand, on the rules of the New Delivery Model, contained in the strategic plans, an Parliament-EU Council agreement was reached on the mini-package presented to the Council: removal of the national indicators and an annex (only the amounts of non-surface payments would be maintained).
On the other hand, with regard to the provisions of the New Delivery Model in the horizontal regulation, the negotiators found common ground on rules requiring Member States to respect their strategic plan with the possibility of reducing and suspending payments, if necessary.
On the horizontal regulation, the Presidency’s compromise text already provided for concessions to Parliament: use of the Arachne data extraction tool with a transitional phase, maintenance of 1% control on cross-compliance, transparency on CAP beneficiaries (identification of the group to which they belong).
Results of the trilogue: on cross-compliance, Parliament accepts 1% control, but, in exchange, it obtains €100 of de minimis clause and 3/10/15% of common sanctions. On transparency, Parliament obtains the obligation for Member States to obtain data from groups that benefit from the CAP.
On the CMO, the institutions agreed on an extension of vineyard planting authorisations until 2045 (revised in 2028 and 2040).
An agreement in principle has been reached on supply management, which would be extended to all agricultural products under PDO/PGI. There is reportedly agreement in principle on de-alcoholised wines and nutrition labelling would be accepted for all types of wine.
“The super trilogue has allowed for constructive progress in the negotiations on the reform of the CAP for the period 2023-2027. We have taken a decisive step towards a comprehensive agreement by the end of spring”, Ms Sander was pleased to say.
The next trilogues on the reform will take place on 16 April (strategic plans), 21 April (CMO) and 23 April (horizontal regulation). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)