The roughly 3,000 amendments tabled to Norbert Lins’s draft report (EPP, German) on the future post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) confirm the deep divergences between the political groups over the arrangements for allocating direct payments. Capping, degressivity, redistributive payment and the definition of the ‘active farmer’ account for the bulk of the debate (see EUROPE 13898/10).
The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) are advocating a more redistributive CAP. In several amendments, German MEP Maria Noichl proposes that the savings generated through the degressivity or capping of direct payments should be reallocated to farmers in the same region in order to preserve territorial balances. She is also calling for aid to be better targeted at active farmers and holdings that genuinely depend on it for their income.
As regards direct payments, several MEPs from Renew Europe (Elsi Katainen, Christine Singer, Barry Cowen and Jérémy Decerle) are calling for a more flexible approach than that proposed by the European Commission. Elsi Katainen and Christine Singer want to make capping and degressivity of aid optional. Several amendments also propose deducting labour costs before these mechanisms are applied so as not to penalise farms that employ large amounts of labour. Christine Singer also proposes making the simplified scheme for small farmers optional and raising its cap to €6,000 per year. For his part, Irish MEP Ciaran Mullooly wants to extend this support to small and medium-sized farms. Lastly, Christine Singer and Barry Cowen propose that the redistributive payment in favour of the first hectares should take the form of an annual decoupled payment, while giving Member States more room for manoeuvre in its implementation.
MEPs from Renew Europe are also seeking to target aid beneficiaries more effectively. Jérémy Decerle, Laurence Farreng, Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, Grégory Allione and Pascal Canfin propose including in the regulation a harmonised definition of the ‘active farmer’. That person should hold the capital of the farm and control its means of production, take part in strategic and operational decisions, receive non-agricultural income not exceeding four times the national annual minimum wage, and be able to demonstrate appropriate agricultural training. Member States could reserve certain CAP measures for those active farmers alone.
By contrast, the Greens/EFA group is advocating a much stronger redistribution of aid. Unlike the rapporteur, Norbert Lins (EPP), who is proposing to raise the cap on direct payments to €500,000, the Greens/EFA shadow rapporteur, Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz, wants to lower it to €75,000 and introduce more progressive degressivity. The resulting savings would be reallocated in full to agri-environmental and climate measures, as well as to investments in the environment, climate and animal welfare. The group is also proposing to raise to 35% the share of the direct payments envelope earmarked for these measures, without national co-financing. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)