The informal meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers, on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 June in Lisbon, will be devoted in particular to preparing the final discussions with the other EU institutions on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The theme of the working meeting on 15 June is: “Food Systems, Innovation and Natural Resource Management”.
Behind the scenes, discussions will undoubtedly focus on the CAP reform (see EUROPE 12733/7). The national experts of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will try, on Monday 14 June, in the margins of the meeting of their ministers, to finalise a compromise that could satisfy the Parliament on the last problematic points of the talks, which are still the same: funds reserved for environmental measures (eco-schemes and percentage of the measures of the second pillar of the CAP), integration or not of the objectives of the ‘European Green Deal’ into the CAP, cross-compliance, social standards, redistribution of aid, coupled support, financing of the crisis reserve and pesticide residues in imported products.
On the basis of the compromise texts being finalised by the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, discussions may resume with the other two EU institutions. The technical trilogue on the strategic plans, originally scheduled for 16 June, was cancelled, but could be rescheduled for the following week, just before a super trilogue on 24-25 June, which is expected to finalise the negotiations.
Learning from Covid-19. EU Agriculture Ministers will debate, on 15 June, on the basis of a four-page document prepared by the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, the challenges facing food systems: climate change, trade globalisation, technological transition, the growing complexity of value chains, the change in consumer preferences, demographic change and the resulting generational renewal, and the need to protect natural resources. For the Portuguese Presidency, the diversity of EU agriculture must be taken into account. It recalls that “the recent disruption caused by Covid-19 has led to an increased awareness of the need to integrate the issue of resilience into food chains”. It is therefore necessary, it believes, to “strengthen the strategic autonomy of the territories”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)