On Monday 24 February in Brussels, the European agriculture ministers gave a rather warm welcome to the ideas put forward by the European Commission in its ‘vision’ for agriculture, particularly with regard to the reciprocity of production standards and the simplification of the rules governing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, presented the ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food’ (see EUROPE 13583/5).
Most of the ministers who spoke welcomed this initiative. An in-depth discussion on the Commission’s agricultural ‘vision’ will take place at the ‘Agriculture’ Council on 24 and 25 March. Several delegations (including Spain, France and Portugal) have asked for the proposals in this vision to be examined by the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA).
Budget. Many ministers have called for an adequate and separate budget for the CAP to be maintained during the EU’s 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). France has called for a “dedicated budget, with resources commensurate with the challenges”. This country has also demanded that the two pillars (direct aid and rural development) of the CAP be excluded “from any single national plan” that the Commission might propose, in order to maintain budgets dedicated to this policy.
The Austrian Minister, Norbert Totschnig, considered it “necessary to give the CAP the important place it currently occupies in the future financial framework”. Italy called for adequate funding to be maintained, while Luxembourg advocated an “autonomous budget commensurate with the challenges”. Hungary has called for an independent CAP budget to be maintained.
Reciprocity of standards. France, Austria, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Hungary and the Czech Republic have welcomed the Commission’s ideas for aligning third-country standards for trade in agricultural products with those of the EU in the areas of pesticides and animal welfare. Luxembourg stressed that this was important in the context of the EU/Mercosur agreement.
The French delegation welcomed the commitments on ‘mirror clauses “including the strengthening of controls on imported products, with the creation of a dedicated task force”.
Direct aid. France has asked for clarification of what is meant by ‘more targeted’ aid. Targeting must not totally exclude certain farmers from direct payments, even though they currently receive them.
Hungary called for area-based aid and the two pillars of the CAP to be maintained, while Slovakia and Latvia, in particular, insisted on the ‘external convergence’ of aid. This mechanism makes it possible to gradually adjust income support per hectare in each country, either upwards or downwards, to bring it closer to the EU average. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)