EU Agriculture Ministers called on the European Commission, on Monday 21 March in Brussels, to quickly approve the strategic plans implementing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), but several of them asked for flexibility to modify them because of the effects of the war in Ukraine on food security.
“The current crisis encourages us to strengthen the objective of food security and farm resilience within the strategic plans and some Member States may have to modify them in this sense”, said French Minister Julien Denormandie, who chairs the Agriculture Council, after the countries’ interventions on the strategic plans.
Some countries such as Italy, Estonia, Finland, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania requested flexibility or changes in strategic plans to take into account the supply problems resulting from the war.
Several ministers, such as those from Slovenia and Hungary, have called for an adaptation of the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy to take account of current food safety requirements. Germany, on the other hand, called on the EU to maintain the targets set out in the European Green Deal.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, recalled the steps before the formal approval of Member States national strategic plans. On 30 March, letters of observation will be sent to 19 EU countries and made public.
Recommendations will be made on changes to these plans. The Commission will then adopt the national strategic plans at the earliest this summer. The new CAP will enter into force on 1 January 2023. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)