News

On 17/11/2020, the European Commission issued working documents for the negotiations on the CAP in the framework of trialogues between the European Commission, Parliament, and the Council. According to the working documents, the European Commission will strive to strengthen the ambitions of the CAP in the field of environmental and climate protection, focusing specially on setting the rules for cross compliance and eco-schemes. According to the European Commission, cross-compliance is a key tool for mitigating climate change, protecting biodiversity, protecting wetlands and peatlands, and enhancing animal welfare. Eco-schemes should be set up to motivate farmers to adopt more sustainable farming practices. Therefore, a sufficient CAP budget should be ensured for eco-schemes. According to the Commission, CAP funds should be distributed more fairly, and the Commission also mentions in the background documents that 80% of CAP funds go to 20% of beneficiaries. According to the Commission, the CAP will have to be linked to the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy. The Commission is also preparing guidelines for individual Member States, which should help set up eco-schemes and CAP Strategic Plans. Recommendations will be prepared for each Member State based on an analysis of the situation in the Member States. The first draft guidelines were finalized by the Commission on 16/11/2020, at which time the guidelines were not available. A dialogue will now take place between the Commission and the Member States, based on which the guidelines will be finalized and formally adopted. In response to the submission of working documents, the European agricultural think tank Farm Europe emphasized that the European Commission had not yet submitted any impact assessment on the implementation of the objectives of the Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity Strategy. This comment was also made during the Council of Agriculture Ministers on 16/11/2020, in this context the Ministers of Agriculture of Spain and the Czech Republic drew attention to a study by the United States Department of Agriculture, according to which the implementation of the new strategies could lead to a drop in EU production by up to 12% and a significant increase in world food prices.
More information is available here and here.

Earlier last week, the President of the European Commission responded to the Greens' calls for the withdrawal of the Commission’s CAP draft by stating that she did not plan to take such a step. However, on 12/11/2020, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, said that if the new CAP were not ambitious enough in terms of measures to protect the climate and the environment, he would consider withdrawing CAP proposals. The disunity of the European Commission and the speech by Frans Timmermans were immediately criticized by the European Parliament's largest political group, the EPP. During the Council of Ministers on 16/11/2020, agriculture ministers also criticized the speech of Timmermans, and German agriculture minister Julia Klöckner called his statement as dishonest and denying the principles of democracy. However, Germany's position is not unanimous either - support for Timmermans was expressed by the environment ministers of the eleven federal republics of Germany. In response to criticism from agriculture ministers, Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, supported Ursula von der Leyen's previous statement, according to Wojciechowski, the withdrawal of CAP proposals should not even be considered. In her own response, Ursula von der Leyen said that under European law, the Commission could indeed proceed with the withdrawal of CAP proposals but reaffirmed that it was not considering doing so. However, she emphasized that the CAP must be changed so that agriculture is no longer one of the main causes of biodiversity loss in the EU. Frans Timmermans responded by saying that the current ambitions of the CAP proposals were insufficient and needed to be further strengthened. Timmermans emphasized the need to respond to climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen biodiversity protection and the restoration of wetlands and peatlands, and support the shift to sustainability. According to him, modern technologies, digitization, modernization, but also precision agriculture should be supported.
More information is available here and here.

On 13/11/2020, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a report on Performance check for EU programme, which also focused on the functioning of the Common Agricultural Policy. The ECA concludes that the Commission's reporting of 2019 information on CAP performance presents a too positive picture and does not focus on results. The main shortcoming is that the performance indicators for the period 2014-2020 are not set based on a detailed intervention logic for the provision of financial support under the CAP. For example, direct payments to farmers have managed to reduce the volatility of their incomes, but these payments are not aimed at helping farmers to ensure a fair standard of living. In addition, CAP measures have been found to have little impact on tackling climate change. According to the ECA, greening measures had only a very small measurable impact on agricultural practices in the EU and on the improvement of the environment; according to the ECA, only 5% of agricultural land in the EU has changed positively. According to the report, 30% of CAP funds go to only 2% of beneficiaries, and CAP support to help young farmers has little impact.
More information is available here and here.

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the action plan for the development of EU organic production on 04/09/2020, responses to the public consultation can only be sent until the end of this week, i.e. until 27/11/2020. The European Commission states that, under the European Green Deal, the Union has set an ambitious target for 2030 of at least 25% of agricultural land in the EU to be managed organically and that there must be a significant increase in the share of organic fish farming. According to the Commission, the organic farming action plan will help consumers, farmers, businesses, Member State governments and local authorities to achieve this goal. The action plan should encourage investment and innovation in sustainable agriculture, respond to increased consumer interest in organic food, and lead to increased demand for organic food. So far, 124 stakeholder opinions have been sent for public consultation, and the organization representing organic farmers in the EU, IFOAM, has also sent an opinion for consultation. According to IFOAM, at least 25% of the CAP budget should be allocated to support organic farming in the EU in order to meet the goal of the European Commission's new strategies, which is to manage at least 25% of EU agricultural land under the organic regime. According to IFOAM, Member States should submit national action plans for the expansion of organic farming. IFOAM also states that external costs should be internalized, such as a re-pricing of plant protection products, which, according to IFOAM, is the main reason for the resulting low prices of conventional agricultural production in the EU. Targets for Green Public Procurement should also be set so that production and demand for organic products grow in parallel.
The public consultation is available here.

On 16/11/2020, the European Commission approved an investment package of €280 million for the LIFE programme projects, which focuses on environmental and climate protection. A total of 120 new projects will contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal by supporting the circular economy action plan and the EU biodiversity strategy. €220 million is allocated to projects on the environment and biodiversity and €60 million to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
More information is available here.