Gathered for a high-stakes EU Council meeting, while several hundred farmers were demonstrating their anger a stone’s throw away in the European quarter of Brussels, the EU27 agriculture ministers spent a long part of the day on Monday 26 February trying to find solutions to the crisis currently affecting the Union’s farming sector.
Just before the weekend, the European Commission had presented a document setting out a series of short- and medium-term actions to take to simplify CAP rules (see EUROPE 13356/3). The Member States had done the same a few days earlier, sending the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council more than 500 possible measures, compiled in a summary document (see EUROPE 13355/10).
Presented as “a first concrete step before taking political decisions” by the Belgian Minister for Agriculture, David Clarinval, this meeting above all enabled the EU27 to endorse the Commission’s proposals, while calling for “more ambition” in the decisions to follow.
“There are many reasons for their discontent, but they are mainly concentrated on a few issues: environmental rules, which are very strict; an increasing divergence between the reality on the ground and European or national provisions that have an impact on agricultural realities; and overly complex legislation, which requires administrative simplification”, the Belgian minister summed up at the end of the meeting.
According to several European sources, the Commission’s main proposals in relation to these reasons have been favourably received by the majority of Member States, with a desire to go beyond short- and medium-term measures to implement structural changes.
More flexible GAECs
Many of the short-term measures involve making some of the cross-compliance requirements (GAEC, or good agricultural and environmental condition) more flexible, and taking a more measured approach to the concepts of ‘force majeure’ and ‘exceptional circumstances’. These concepts allow farmers who are unable to meet all CAP requirements due to exceptional and unforeseeable events beyond their control to be exempted from penalties.
For the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, the war in Ukraine and the disruption it is causing on the European market must now be considered as ‘exceptional circumstances’.
On the question of flexibility, GAECs 1, 6, 7 and 8 were the most frequently mentioned. With regard to GAEC 1, which requires the area of permanent grassland in the EU to be kept stable, the European Commissioner stated that it “would achieve better results as a voluntary eco-regime. Incentives are always better than forcing the farmers for more environmentally friendly practices”.
GAEC 8, which concerns set-aside land, has already been the subject of a partial derogation for 2024. The Commission is also proposing to exempt organic farmers from the requirements of GAEC 7 and 8.
Reopening the CAP text
While at this stage the Commission is concentrating its efforts on short-term simplification measures, the question of reopening the CAP’s basic act has been widely raised and now seems to enjoy consensus.
In theory, it should be possible to implement this option by the end of the current Commission’s mandate, so that work can begin as soon as possible.
According to several sources, the current situation calls for discussing again what was agreed at the time of the 2021 reform, without undoing the integrity of the CAP. “The 2021 reforms were made before the Green Deal and before the start of the war. It’s not dishonourable to say that, yes, today we have to change things”, said David Clarinval.
However, the CAP is not the only subject of farmers’ grievances: remuneration, the liberalisation of trade with Ukraine and the balance of trade agreements will also have to be addressed.
The same day, the Commission published its report on the EU’s agri-food trade surplus. This reached €6.9 billion, an increase of 27% compared with November 2022. “Cumulative exports since January reached €210.8 billion, with main increases for processed products, including cereal preparations and preparations of fruit and nuts”, the report details (https://aeur.eu/f/b14 ).
“This meeting is just the first step”, said Mr Clarinval after the ministerial meeting. “We’re not going to leave farmers on their own in these difficult times”. The future of the CAP and EU policy in the agricultural sector will be “important topics” at the forthcoming EU ‘Agriculture’ Councils of the EU27. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)