Brussels, 03/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 3 October, the European Parliament's agriculture committee decided to reject the proposal on the introduction of optional modulation of direct payments, a mechanism which was agreed on at the European Council of December 2005, when the financial perspective was agreed. The report Lutz Goepel (EPP-ED, Germany), which therefore calls on the Commission to withdraw its proposal, is due to be debated by the European Parliament at its plenary session in Strasbourg from 23 to 26 October.
The European Council decision introduced the possibility, for those Member States which wished, of reducing direct payment to farmers who receive more than €5,000 per annum to 20%, with savings made to be transferred to rural development programmes. The EP agriculture committee considered that this kind of voluntary modulation: - endangered the survival of many farms; - led to competition distortions and discrimination among farmers in some Member States; - and risked leading to the abandonment or the re-nationalisation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The proposal has also been criticised by several EU Member States (see EUROPE 9236) and even by Mariann Fischer Boel, the Agriculture Commissioner, who has always preferred the compulsory modulation of aid, in force since 2005. The 2003 reform allowed for a 3% compulsory reduction in agricultural aid in 2005, 4% in 2006 and 5% from 2007 until 2012, with sums saved going to rural development. (lc)