News

The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) discussed on 23/09/2019 the Common Agricultural Policy post 2020 and the setting of certain definitions in the CAP reform. Officials from the Permanent Representations or the Ministries of the Member States responsible for the CAP were mainly concerned with the definition of a real farmer or eligible hectares. In the case of the definition of eligible hectares, the Romanian Presidency proposed to include in the definition landscape features that are required under DZES 9 - but many Member States disagreed with the proposal, while other Member States require that the Finnish Presidency add to the definition even more landscape features. According to SCA representatives, further technical meetings of experts will be necessary on this point to reach a compromise. As for the definition of a real farmer, almost all Member States supported the voluntary implementation of the definition. However, the European Commission has stressed on several occasions the need to introduce a more precise mandatory definition of a real farmer.
More information is available here.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan said last week that the European institutions could reach an agreement to reform the Common Agricultural Policy by the end of 2019. According to Hogan, both the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union are planning to approve their opinions by this deadline. Similarly, according to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Member States should reach an agreement on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework after 2020 by the end of the year. The rules for transitional measures are likely to be published by the Commission during October 2019, with a transitional period of one year.

Last week, Commissioner-designate for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that the Common Agricultural Policy should play a key role in the so-called European Green Deal, which will be under the responsibility of Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, to achieve carbon neutrality in the EU. The CAP should be modernized, streamlined and simplified; it must reflect carbon neutrality commitments and cope with climate change; and should have a long-term strategy for rural areas. The CAP should also include targeted actions to address environmental challenges, while farmers should be encouraged to reduce emissions. According to Wojciechowski, CAP support should be conditional on farmers better rotating crops or introducing appropriate plowing systems to enhance carbon sequestration into the soil.

Wojciechowski has been investigated by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for irregularities in reporting travel costs. Wojciechowski has already reimbursed all questionable travel expenses back to the European Parliament and OLAF stopped investigating the Commissioner-designate.

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch candidate for the post of Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, will be responsible for the implementation of the European Green Deal under the next mandate, which should aim, among other things, to achieve carbon neutrality in the EU. Timmermans supported the introduction of the European Afforestation Program during the US Climate Summit, which should be implemented by EU citizens. According to Timmermans, part of the CAP funding should therefore be redirected to sustainable land use practices.

The Agriculture and Food Summit organized by the POLITICO news media took place in Paris on 26-27/09/2019. During the summit, a number of MEPs, representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture of the EU Member States, and other key figures in agricultural policy were heard. Italian MEP Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Faction Coordinator for Agriculture) said that the new CAP post 2020 should aim to end the payment of CAP aid to those who invest in land purchases without prioritizing land management. The problem, according to Dorfmann, is not in large farms if they actually farm, but in buying up land primarily to get EU subsidies. Capping, according to Dorfmann, is probably not an appropriate way to solve this problem, but the implementation of the definition of real farmer could help. Deputy Director of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture, Mihail Dumitru, in the context of the proposal to reduce the budget for the CAP, stated that it is always possible to do more with less resources if efforts are made and the available instruments are properly adjusted. According to Dumitru, the budget plan is realistic, while Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic Jiří Šír refused to cut the budget, while supporting the strengthening of the budget in order to meet the environmental commitments. In addition, Šír refused to have the CAP the same parameters for all Member States, for instance in the case of direct payments per hectare. According to him, the CAP should be a common policy, so its setting must guarantee comparable impacts on all types of farms in all EU Member States. Therefore, according to Šír, the capping of direct payments should only be a voluntary instrument. The incentive to introduce capping in order to limit the purchase of agricultural land by foreign investors without a primary interest in land management is wrong, according to Šír; the European Union should introduce stricter rules for the purchase of land by agricultural companies instead of punishing its farmers.
More information about the Summit is available here.