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The Council of Agriculture Ministers met on 22-23/03/2021, as part of Tuesday's program, ministers were preparing for a meeting of the super trilogue. During the negotiations, Portugal confirmed its interest in trying to reach a final agreement on the CAP package by the end of May 2021. As part of the preparatory debate, agriculture ministers also discussed the setting up of direct payments under the CAP Strategic Plans. Portugal therefore presented a compromise proposal to ministers, which included voluntary capping of direct payments, voluntary degressivity, voluntary redistributive payment, but a mandatory definition of active farmer (the Council in its original opinion of October 2020 supported a voluntary definition of active farmer). However, the Portuguese Presidency emphasized that any mandatory definition would have to be flexible enough for Member States to work with it further. Aid to young farmers was also discussed, and the Council supported an increase in support from the envelope for direct payments from 2% to 3% (but LV, HU, CY supported maintaining 2%). The draft compromise during the negotiations 23/03/2021 was supported by FR, BG, ES, and SI, but the French Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie emphasized that one of the tools for better targeting direct payments, i.e., either capping or redistributive payments, should be made mandatory. States should be able to choose which of the two instruments to implement. The Council also presented the opinion of fourteen Member States (AT, CY, CZ, DK, FI, FR, EL, HU, IE, IT, LU, PL, RO, ES) calling for simplification of the CAP, one of the key aspects of the opinion being support for the possibility for beneficiaries to correct errors to reduce the number of fines paid. As part of the discussion on Horizontal Issues, the setting of controls was also discussed. In the long run, the European institutions cannot agree on whether the control system should be set up on The Portuguese Presidency proposed the possibility of a hybrid model, a model that would use both some cross-compliance rules and a performance model. However, the hybrid was rejected by the representatives of CZ, HU, DK, SE, RO, HR, AT, LU, EL, LV, SI, EE, FI, and IE, the model would not bring the required simplification and therefore, according to the representatives, should not be supported. Representatives of the Member States also discussed the ARACHNE instrument in the framework of Horizontal Issues, which should be used to collect data on CAP beneficiaries. According to representatives from LU, CY and DK, this tool should only be implemented on a voluntary basis. As a result, the Council supported volunteering for ARACHNE, and the Council also supported the introduction of a transitional period. In the next two months, the Council could meet at the same time as the CAP trialogue to adapt the Council's mandate more flexibly to the changing views of the other institutions.
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The Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Janusz Wojciechowski, is currently focusing on the issue of defining a real / active farmer on his Twitter account. The Commissioner supports the introduction of a mandatory definition. In the first half of March, the Commissioner proposed four own definition criteria - a real / active farmer, according to the Commissioner, should remain permanently on his farm, keep livestock at least to a minimum, make a profit from agriculture of at least 25% of his total income, and he should farm on the land he acquired from his ancestors. According to the Commissioner, meeting one of these criteria should be sufficient to meet the definition of a real farmer. At the end of March, however, he adjusted his own, unofficial, criteria and extended them to a total of 5 criteria - according to the Commissioner, a real / active farmer should live permanently on his farm, be involved in work and farm management (new), should to keep livestock at least to a minimum, a significant proportion of its profits (this time without a specific percentage) should come from its agricultural activity, and should farm the land it has acquired from its ancestors. According to the Commissioner, to meet the definition of a real farmer, it should be enough to meet two, not one, of the criteria. The Commissioner also said in other contributions that the Commission would seek to set the mandatory definition of a real / active farmer correctly, addressing several issues - checking the actual activities of agricultural landowners, comparing agricultural and non-agricultural incomes, checking actual work and personal involvement of beneficiaries in work on the farm. This control may involve additional risks of increased administrative burdens, considering the great diversity of European agriculture in terms of size, type, and farm layout.
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Around 30 representatives of environmental organizations protested in front of the European Commission and EU Council buildings on 26/03/2021 against the current form of CAP reform proposals, calling on representatives of the European institutions who were discussing the CAP in a so-called super trilogue withdrawal the whole proposal. According to environmental organizations, the current form of CAP proposals is not in line with the requirements of the European Green Deal, so in addition to the protest, the organizations also organized a petition to withdraw the entire proposal, which has already been signed by over 157,000 European citizens. During their speeches, the organizations also pointed out that 80% of direct payments from the CAP in the EU go to only 20% of the largest beneficiaries; also criticized support for intensive agricultural production models.
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The European Commission presented on 25/03/2021 an Action Plan for Organic Farming. According to the Commission, the main objective of this plan will be to support the production and consumption of organic agricultural products, to achieve 25% organic farming by 2030, and to significantly increase the share of organic aquaculture. The sustainability of organic farming should also be strengthened. According to the European Commission, organic farms under organic farming have about 30% more biodiversity, while farmed animals enjoy better living conditions. Organic farming is also beneficial to farmers due to higher incomes. The European Commission states that the action plan is designed to provide the fast-growing organic production sector with the appropriate tools to achieve the 25% target. The plan presents a total of 23 measures to help boost consumption, increase production, and strengthen the sustainability of the sector. EU Member States should draw up their own national organic action plans to increase their national share of organic farming, complement the national strategic plans for the CAP, and set out measures that go beyond agriculture and what the CAP offers.
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In November 2020, the European Commission launched a public consultation on a delegated act on sustainable finance - the EU green investment classification system. The aim was to present the text of the delegated act in December 2020, but almost 50,000 contributions were sent to the public consultation, so the Commission postponed the delegation act to April 2021. The new initiative will create a classification system for sustainable economic activities ("taxonomy") and focus on the EU's environmental goals of climate change mitigation and adaptation. According to the Commission, this taxonomy will be a common language that investors around the world can use to invest in projects and economic activities that have a significant positive impact on the climate and the environment. The taxonomy is part of the European Green Deal, which aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. According to the European Commission, taxonomy as such should not be a mandatory initiative, for example, European banks will be able to commit themselves to fulfilling the taxonomy voluntarily. The Dutch Rabobank has already confirmed its interest in implementing the taxonomy rules. In the draft delegated act of November 2020, the European Commission included several agricultural areas among the areas of interest (including the cultivation of permanent crops, animal production or forestry). Last week, another working version of the Commission document leaked, which has undergone several changes from the November version. All agricultural chapters and references to plant or animal production have been excluded from the document for the time being, the current wording of the working draft continues to mention only forestry. However, negotiations on the final form of the delegated act are still not over. The largest European agricultural organization, Copa & Cogeca, is currently discussing whether it would not be better to keep agricultural chapters in the taxonomy - excluding them would prevent the agricultural sector from accessing new green investments, which could have a negative impact on the agricultural sector, according to Copa & Cogeca.