Negotiations between EU institutions on future strategic plans for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) resume on Tuesday 11 May, the agenda includes the percentage of eco-regimes and the targeting of direct payments (see EUROPE 12711/14).
The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), represented by experts from EU countries, met on Monday 10 May to take stock of the state of negotiations on the reform. The SCA would have confirmed, in broad terms, the current mandate given to the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council to negotiate with the European Parliament on these issues.
At a meeting of Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture, also on Monday, Parliament rapporteur on the strategic plans, Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany), said that Parliament and the EU Council would have to agree on “flexibilities” around the eco-regimes, including on the ‘start-up phase’ requested by the EU Council.
Parliament is also due to vote on the EU Council’s offer to increase the percentage of direct aid devoted to eco-regimes from 22 to 25%.
Mr Jahr confirmed the major differences with the EU Council on the targeting of aid (capping, degressivity, redistributive payment).
Member States ask that these tools remain mostly optional.
There is also strong dissension over Parliament’s demand that the social dimension be taken into account in the CAP regulations. He welcomed the progress made in the last trilogue on regionalisation in the framework of the strategic plans.
Link to the conclusions of the 30 April trilogue on strategic plans: https://bit.ly/3y0HdtG
CAN Europe regrets the lack of ambition in the strategic plans. In a report (https://bit.ly/3fabU6S ) published on Monday 10 May, Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe regrets the lack of ambition of some of the draft strategic plans prepared by France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Ireland.
For France, CAN Europe regrets in particular that the texts on the table do not include the objectives of the national low-carbon strategy concerning agriculture (18% reduction in emissions in 2030). For Spain, the organisation insists on strengthening conditionality and greener guidelines for eco-regimes.
In Germany, Denmark and Ireland, the criticisms include insufficient measures to limit emissions from the livestock sector. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)