MEPs on the right and in the centre of the European Parliament, as well as a majority of members of the S&D group (around 40 voted against), welcomed, on Thursday 25 April, the positive vote in plenary on measures to simplify certain CAP rules (see EUROPE 13398/19).
The swift adoption by MEPs of the European Commission’s proposals “responds to the concerns expressed by European farmers over recent months regarding the administrative burden associated with implementing the CAP”, according to the EU’s agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca).
The vote is “a victory for European farmers and our food security”, said Norbert Lins (EPP, German), Chair of Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture. “As farmers will no longer be required to dedicate a minimum part of their arable land to non-productive areas, the result will ease the economic burden”, he said.
In an op-ed published on Wednesday, MEP Jérémy Decerle (Renew Europe, French) suggests some ideas for the future of agriculture in Europe. “A better political approach to agriculture and the environment, for example, would be to focus on the means rather than the ends”, he argues. In particular, he stresses the need to support farmers with a “policy of prevention and management of all hazards” (climatic and economic) combining insurance and other mutualisation tools, without forgetting to “cover the risks linked precisely to changes in farming practices”.
The MEPs on the left of the Chamber are worried. “The Greens/EFA Group once again opposed this legislation, which weakens the CAP’s environmental cross-compliance rules and even goes so far as to do away with fundamental ecological and agronomic elements that have been in place for decades”, according to a press release.
Some NGOs, such as ClientEarth, also criticised the CAP reform stating that it was “jeopardising the EU’s ability to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises and threatens the future of farming”.
Link to the text adopted by the European Parliament: https://aeur.eu/f/bz4 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)