Work in the EU Council is progressing on the arrangements for transferring certain provisions of the regulation on ‘national and regional partnership plans’ (2028-2034) to the texts relating to the common agricultural policy (CAP).
Last November, the European Commission proposed transferring certain provisions in response to concerns about the visibility of the future legal framework for farmers.
Technical discussions within the Council showed that many delegations wanted to go further, by also transferring other provisions to the CAP regulation.
In the light of discussions with the Member States, the Cyprus Presidency of the Council drew up a list of provisions that a large majority of Member States wish to transfer to the CAP Regulation and to other sectoral regulations, such as the Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) Regulation. This list includes additional provisions to those initially proposed by the Commission.
Following discussions in the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper), on Wednesday 28 January, the Cyprus Presidency of the Council revised the list, proposing in particular to add the definition of a farmer and Article 35 on types of intervention, which were not included in the initial version. These elements are placed in square brackets and will be examined as part of the horizontal discussions on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), given their budgetary implications.
Examples of provisions to be transferred from the Partnership Plan Regulation include the article on State aid, the provisions on sustainable farm management and the provisions on rules applicable to businesses.
A partial general agreement could be examined in Coreper and then by the General Affairs Council (GAC) on the two texts (on the national and regional partnership plans and on the CAP) once all the elements are deemed ready. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)