On Tuesday 9 November, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture protested against the European Commission’s aim to have urgent secondary legislation on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) adopted by 9 December. The relevant texts would then be adopted by Member States’ experts by 21 December, to enter into force before the end of 2021 (see EUROPE 12829/15).
The European Commission representative gave MEPs an update on the delegated and implementing acts making up the CAP reform. The three texts reforming the CAP have still not been ratified by the European Parliament and the EU Council, but the Commission hopes that this will happen on 2 December (at Council level).
The Commission is therefore asking the European Parliament to give a prior non-objection to three pieces of secondary legislation. Two concern strategic plans (types of interventions and contents of strategic plans) and one relates to horizontal regulation.
The remaining non-urgent delegated and implementing acts would be submitted for adoption between January and March 2022. As a reminder, the new CAP will enter into force on 1 January 2023, by when the Commission must analyse and approve the national strategic plans submitted by the EU Member States.
Time pressure. Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy), Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy), Ulrike Müller (Renew, Europe, Germany) and Mazaly Aguilar (ECR, Spain) all denounced the time pressure exerted by the Commission to get a quick green light from the European Parliament on secondary legislation for the CAP. Paolo De Castro also pointed out problems in the draft delegated acts on promotion measures in the fruit sector.
“If the European Parliament and the Member States ask for time to solve the remaining problems, the Commission must give us that time”, said Jérémy Decerle (Renew Europe, France).
“It is not the Commission that imposes time constraints. If we are working urgently, it is to serve the interests of the CAP,” replied the Commission representative, mentioning the work to be done on the evaluation of strategic plans. He warned of the negative effects of a two or three month delay on the evaluation.
Objectives of the ‘European Green Deal’. Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg (Greens/EFA, Germany) regretted that EU Member States are refusing to integrate the quantified targets of the ‘Farm to Fork’ and ‘Biodiversity’ strategies into the strategic plans.
Several MEPs, such as Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany), Anne Sander (EPP, France) and Bert-Jan Ruissen (ECR, Netherlands), said that the Commission should not incorporate the ‘European Green Deal’ targets into secondary legislation, as this is politically and legally problematic. These numerical targets are essential elements which should have been decided in the framework of the basic regulation, through the co-decision procedure and not through a delegated act.
The Commission reassured that the delegated act on the content of strategic plans will “fully respect the delicate balance” achieved in the political agreement on the strategic plans regulation. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)