In a working document dated 8 April and consulted by EUROPE, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU has presented ideas to advance negotiations with the European Parliament on certain elements of the common agricultural policy (CAP) reform.
With regard to the “redistribution of direct payments from large to small- and medium-sized holdings”, the Portuguese Presidency is proposing a ‘no-backsliding clause’ to ensure that “the volume of funds transferred from large to medium- and small-sized holdings would be at least as high” as during the 2014–2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) period, according to the document.
This idea was reportedly fairly well received by EU Member States during the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) meeting on 12 April (see EUROPE 12696/1).
Portugal is also proposing that one of the following measures on the targeting of aid be made mandatory: redistributive payments, capping of aid, or degressivity (reduction) of direct payments. For its part, the European Parliament would like these three instruments to be mandatory. The Council of the EU prefers for these measures to remain voluntary.
In addition, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU suggests, in the same document, that delegations explore the “margins of flexibility” on the percentage of direct aid to be devoted to future eco-schemes. The aim of this suggestion is to find a compromise between the position of the Council of the EU (20% of payments to be earmarked for eco-schemes) and that of the European Parliament (30%). A majority of Member States have reportedly asked to stick to the original EU Council mandate (20%).
The document also cites the 22 indicators used, 12 of which are related to the environmental and climate dimension and 5 have to do with the social dimension.
The Portuguese Presidency presented two other documents on the results of the ‘super trilogue’ held on 26 March on the other two CAP texts—namely, the horizontal regulation and the one on common market organisation (CMO). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)