The EU reaches an agreement on the CAP rules that will apply from 2023

The countries of the European Union and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on Friday on the rules that will govern the operation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from 2023, with which the bloc wants to increase the contribution of the agricultural sector to the fight against climate change and the Green Deal.

It has taken three years of negotiations between Member States and MEPs to unblock the three regulations of the new CAP, which will introduce as major novelties the so-called eco-schemes and a new management model based on national strategic plans.

“I am very pleased to be able to say that we have achieved it!” announced on twitter the Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, who admitted that he would have liked a “different result” in some aspects despite the fact that he is “happy” with the agreement reached at a general level.

The CAP is the largest item in the COMMUNITY budget with an allocation of 380,000 million euros for the period 2021-2027, Spain corresponds to about 37,000 million in direct payments for farmers and ranchers and almost 8,000 million for rural development during the seven years.

The agreement has been reached between the negotiating team of the European Parliament and the government of Portugal, which until the end of this month acts on behalf of the Twenty-seven as the rotating presidency of the EU. Member States’ agriculture ministers meet on Monday and Tuesday next week to assess the details and decide whether to give their go-ahead.

In the face of that meeting, the head of the negotiating team of the European Parliament, the German MEP Norbert Lins, has asked in a press conference to the heads of Agriculture of the Twenty-seven to “accept” an agreement that “may not be perfect” but it is “a good compromise”.

“The CAP will be fairer, more sustainable and good for producers. It ensures that the field is attractive and gives farmers and ranchers incentives to do more to protect the environment.”

NEW MANAGEMENT MODEL AND ECO-SCHEMES

The new CAP will introduce a new management model that will be based on the national strategic plans that will be drawn up by the governments of the bloc based on a series of common objectives and indicators. These plans will then have to be examined and approved by the European Commission.

The other great novelty of the CAP that will apply from 2023 will be the introduction of new ecological schemes or eco-schemes, a new payment that countries will have to offer compulsorily to their producers, although they will be able to decide whether to take advantage of them or not.

This new aid seeks to compensate those farmers who adopt environmentally beneficial practices that are more ambitious than the mandatory requirements and their minimum allocation has been precisely the great obstacle of the negotiations.

The positions of the Member States and MEPs were far apart, because the former wanted 20% of direct payments to be reserved for these eco-schemes, but the latter demanded 30%. The intermediate point has been the compromise solution: 25% of direct aid will have to be devoted to these new ecological schemes.

In exchange for this percentage, the Twenty-seven have managed to establish a series of flexibility clauses so that this money is not lost in case it is impossible to reach that threshold. Thus, the two institutions have agreed on a two-year learning period which can be allocated only 20% to eco-schemes, among other issues.

BETTER DISTRIBUTION OF AID

In addition to voluntary ecological schemes, another aspect that has divided MEPs and capitals until the last moment is to establish a mechanism to make CAP aid better distributed. The provisional agreement finally stipulates on this point that at least 10% of direct payments will have to be allocated to small and medium-sized farms.

To this end, Member States may create an extraordinary payment or may also choose to progressively reduce payments from €60,000 per holding and limit it to €100,000. Brussels had proposed that this second option be mandatory, but the idea was opposed by European governments.

Finally, the third major stumbling block in the negotiations has been the “social dimension” that the European Parliament has advocated to include cap rules. Finally, the pact between the two parties contemplates the creation of a mechanism to “connect from 2025 at the latest national labor inspectors with CAP payment agencies” to sanction possible violations of labor standards in the field.

Source: Europe Press