The European Parliament ratified (425 votes in favour, 130 against and 33 abstentions), on Wednesday 24 April, the changes to certain rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (see EUROPE 13396/10). MEPs accepted (422 votes in favour, 139 against and 9 abstentions) the technical changes proposed by the EU Council and rejected the other amendments, including those from the Greens/EFA and The Left groups calling for the proposal to be rejected (135 votes in favour, 423 against and 16 abstentions).
The regulation (https://aeur.eu/f/bi8 ) must be approved by the Council of the EU before publication in the Official Journal of the EU and entry into force. It allows Member States to grant temporary derogations from certain requirements in terms of good agricultural and environmental condition (GAEC) standards.
Benoît Biteau (Greens/EFA, French) said that this vote was contributing to the “unravelling” of the CAP, which risked damaging the EU’s food sovereignty and biodiversity.
Christophe Clergeau (S&D, French) regretted the refusal of an European Parliament coalition (Renew Europe, right and far right) to hold a plenary debate on the proposed changes to CAP rules. The S&D group had supported amendments in favour of putting a ceiling on CAP aid to redistribute it to the smallest farmers and maintaining GAEC 8 (protection of river banks, hedgerows, etc.).
Manon Aubry (The Left, French) spoke of a “sneaky” revision calling into question environmental standards “at a time when farmers are the first to suffer from climate disruption”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur, with Anne Damiani and Isalia Stieffatre)