On Monday 24 June in Luxembourg, EU agriculture ministers failed to unanimously approve conclusions on the future of EU agriculture.
Since Romania did not wish to support the text, it becomes conclusions of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council.
Romania is not satisfied with the elements of the text concerning the ‘external convergence’ mechanism, which aims to gradually adjust income support per hectare in each EU country - either upwards or downwards - to bring it closer to the EU average.
The conclusions focus on a number of areas: a strong and competitive European agricultural sector, the need for simplification to reduce the administrative burden, support for young people and resilience to climate change.
Crisis framework. In addition, at the Council meeting, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland also reiterated the need to amend the crisis framework by taking the following measures (https://aeur.eu/f/csq ): - the elimination of the individual limit of an enterprise in primary agricultural production (€280,000); - an increase in this limit to €560,000. In accordance with the crisis framework, the individual limit of an enterprise in primary agricultural production for the period of application of the crisis framework is €280,000. This request was supported by Cyprus, Slovakia and Croatia, but was criticised by Ireland.
Croatia referred to the effects of natural disasters (heavy rainfall) on the agricultural sector and, like Slovenia, called for a new intervention in the strategic plan of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as an ‘ad hoc’ financial support mechanism in the event of a crisis, including damage caused by extremely unfavourable weather conditions. Spain has also called for a special crisis fund, while Italy has called for more effective crisis management tools. Poland has indicated that it will also ask the Commission for aid for the country’s farmers affected by natural disasters.
Finally, Bulgaria has called for measures to prevent the loss of funds and to reduce the administrative burden in the management of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) appropriations.
See the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/css (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)