Brussels, 05/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - “We hope that a large part of our report will be found in the (legislative) proposals” that the European Commission is due to adopt in May, said Lutz Goepel (EPP-ED, Germany), the European Parliament rapporteur on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “health check”, speaking in Brussels on Wednesday 5 March. His report will be debated in the EP in Strasbourg on Tuesday 11 March, and the vote will take place the following day (see EUROPE 9611 for a summary of the report).
Goepel said that the stance he had adopted on the CAP health check was supported by “the overwhelming majority” of the members of the EP agriculture committee. When 82% of the EP agriculture committee supports the report, it usually “bodes well” for the plenary session vote, he said. Among the agriculture committee's main demands are: - a cautious approach to extending the decoupling of aid to other sectors; - the immediate abolition of the set-aside obligation; - rejection of the European Commission's proposals on degressivity (level of support falling with farm size) and modulation (reduction in direct aid with a corresponding increase in funding of rural development schemes).
Goepel backed the idea of “progressive modulation” of aid between 2009 and 2013. He said that his recommended exemption threshold (set at €10,000 aid per year) would help average sized family-run farms. Degressivity of aid, as proposed by the Commission, would affect 75% of farms in Germany and 95% of farms in the five new Länder in East Germany, he stated. With regard to milk quotas, due to disappear from 2015, Goepel believes a rise of 1-2% in quotas per year before that date would not greatly disrupt the market. The Commission is called on to allocate this quota increase to national reserves. In addition, the EP recommends a substantial reduction in the supplementary levy (a fine if quotas are exceeded) in 2009 and following years, to counter the rise in quota prices. (L.C.)