Brussels, 25/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - As announced in EUROPE on 21 March (page 13), Agriculture Ministers from Member States will be meeting on 27-30 April in Manga (Spain, autonomous province of Murcia) under the Presidency of Spanish Minister, Miguel Arias Canete, for an informal meeting (Tuesday morning) on the future of rural development policy. The Presidency is hoping that the balance sheet of discussions of the informal Council will be taken into account by the European Commission in its revised proposals half-way through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). All the Ministers appear to agree on the strengthening of rural development policy but different theories exist and sometimes clash with the means of obtaining it (adjustments, de-linking, phasing in of direct aid, national co-funding etc.).
The Spanish Presidency drew Ministers attention to a working document retracing the history of the CAP up to the creation of the rural development policy. The questionnaire that accompanied the document identified the different concepts linked to this policy and delineated the main reforms in the pipeline. Commissioner Frank Fischler is expected to propose that adjustment of state aid becomes compulsory, in June (they are currently optional and only used by France, the United Kingdom and Germany in order to make additional resources available for rural development programmes. The Commission might propose reducing the level of national co-funding (25% for the regions involved and 50% for the other regions); to encourage Member States to use their current rural development programmes. Some Member States like Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal believe that adjustment in the long run could threaten the principle of Communitarisation of costs by opening the door to "renationalisation" of agricultural aid.
The Presidency is also asking the following areas to be examined: difficulties to national co-funding (a theme dear to the hearts of the Germans and Dutch, but not to the taste of France, Italy or the United Kingdom); the introduction of an aid for multi-functionality (per unit of land worked and which would be entirely de-linked from production); effects on the income of different categories of farmers, the transfer of agricultural spending funds (1st Pillar) towards rural development (2nd Pillar); the benefits of phasing in of aids (linear reductions for economising), a ceiling on aid or de-linking of aid (no longer linking aid to compulsory production).
The Special Agricultural Committee which will take place in the backdrop to the Informal Council will be focusing on ethyl alcohol.