The European Commission’s proposals on contractualisation and the flexibility to be offered to non-recognised farming organisations will be at the heart of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture’s debates on empowering farmers.
Céline Imart (EPP, French) submitted her draft report (in French) dated 1 April (https://aeur.eu/f/g9z ), which aims to improve the proposal of 10 December last on the Common Market Organisation (CMO).
The draft report will be discussed by the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture on 28 April (deadline for amendments: 2 May), with a view to a vote within the Committee in September (vote in the plenary session at the end of 2025).
Contractualisation is one of the pillars of the proposal, and it is essential in the milk sector where farmers are faced with major price variations, explains Ms Imart (see EUROPE 13542/6). For other sectors, the principle of contractualisation is supported, while introducing the possibility of a derogation if a Member State’s agricultural sector so requests, according to the draft report. This derogation would be without prejudice to the possibility given to farmers, producer organisations (POs) and associations of producer organisations to request that a contract be drawn up.
For the Commission, which is proposing a compulsory written contract (with derogations), the challenge is to keep a written record in advance of the delivery of products, with a price and volumes. However, many cooperatives, particularly in Germany, do not want these contractualisation provisions. A compromise will have to be found on this issue.
The Commission is proposing to grant possible derogations from competition law to POs that are not recognised. The draft report suggests framing this measure for the benefit of non-recognised POs that initiate a recognition process.
In addition, it supports the possibility for associations of producer organisations to derogate from the rules of Article 101 of the Treaty in cases where they do not carry out any real economic activity. According to Ms Imart, simply taking national production into account could act as a brake on certain sectors. She suggests adding an alternative threshold of no more than 5% of European production for so-called ‘governance’ associations.
Stefano Bonaccini (S&D, Italian) is the rapporteur for the other proposal, which concerns the cross-border application of rules against unfair commercial practices. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)