Brussels, 22/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - It came as no surprise that EU agriculture ministers were, in Brussels on Monday 21 January, divided on the scale of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “health check”. With slight differences among themselves, one group of countries (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain) were of the opinion that the “health check” should not result in further reform of the CAP, only in amendment to prepare the sector for post-2013. Some countries (Denmark, Estonia, Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and United Kingdom), on the other hand, felt that the check should be used to bring about considerable changes in the CAP.
At a press conference, Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that the Council and Commission were on the same wavelength on most points of the 20 November communication on the CAP health check. She said that the most marked differences in the course of the debate were on the usefulness of phasing out support for large companies (aid degression) and on the need to increase the level of aid modulation (percentage taken from direct payments to farms receiving more than €5,000 per year and transferred to the rural development budget) from 5% today to 13% in 2013. She gave details of the timetable: - 20 May, the Commission will bring forward legislative proposals on the CAP health check; - 25-27 May, EU member states will hold discussions on these proposals at the informal Agriculture Council in Slovenia; - the aim is to achieve political agreement in November 2008.
Agriculture Council President and Slovenian Minister Iztok Jarc said that the Council will debate the various measures proposed in greater detail at the February meeting. He said that other issues, such as decoupling of direct payments (severing the link between aid and the amount of production) and ending milk quotas, scheduled for 2015, had caused discord within the Council.
The Commission is proposing to increase the level of decoupling, a proposal which, during the debate, was supported by Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Estonia, Poland and Slovakia. Spain, France, Austria, Finland, Romania and Bulgaria, however, felt it was useful to retain some payments linked to quantities produced (to avoid the abandonment of land). Thus Italian minister, Paolo De Castro, called for the retention of coupled payments in the tobacco, rice and seed sectors. Germany, United Kingdom, Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania again rejected the plan to phase out support for large farms (aid degression). The Commission proposed to increase aid modulation, but this was rejected by most countries. The communication also proposed ending payments based on historic returns in favour of a system based on a more uniform (flat rate) level, which was greeted with scepticism by Irish minister, Mary Coughlan. The new member states welcomed the proposal to extend the single area payment scheme (SAPS) until 2013.
A number of countries (United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden) proposed ending the various market instruments (intervention, quotas, compulsory set aside), while others wanted them retained. Some countries (France and Romania) felt that the Commission document was not good enough with regard to risk management and crisis management measures (crop insurance). (L.C.)