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The Scientific Advisory Committee recommended to the German Agriculture Minister Julie Klöckner to support the reform of the direct payments system under the Common Agricultural Policy. According to the Advisory Committee, direct payments should be reformed between 2021 and 2031 so that after 2031, they are not paid for area but only to promote climate and environmental friendly practices and climate and environmental protection. Klöckner has refused the recommendation for the time being, she intends to still support direct area payments, and Germany should in particular support redistributive payments. Klöckner's main argument for rejecting the recommendation was to maintain the competitiveness of European agriculture and to provide compensation to farmers for increasing demands from the EU.
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Last week, the European Parliament's second largest political group, S&D, sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, requesting a revision of the CAP reform proposed by the Commission in June 2018. According to S&D, a new proposal should be drawn up to ensure the coherence between safe, high quality and nutritionally rich agricultural production at affordable prices, and a healthy environment and efforts to tackle climate change, sustainable development of rural areas, animal welfare, and adequate living standards for farmers.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen was confirmed by the European Parliament as President of the European Commission. The European Parliament voted on the post of the President on 16/07/2019, Ursula von der Leyen received a narrow majority of votes (minimum required to be elected was 374, she was elected by 383 votes). Von der Leyen will take over the mandate on 01/11/2019. The Commissioners will now be selected - the Commission President will send an official letter to the Member States, inviting to present their candidates for Commissioners. Candidates for the various positions in the relevant committees of the European Parliament should be present at hearings from 30/09/2019 to 08/10/2019. The new Commissioners will subsequently be confirmed by the Parliament, probably in the period 21-24/10/2019.

Last week, Ursula von der Leyen said that ensuring the access of all people to healthy food and education is crucial in the fight against poverty in the EU, the European Union should also continue to seek becoming a carbon-neutral region by 2050 (it should produce as much carbon as it is able to absorb itself). In response to Leyen's speech, environmental NGOs expressed disappointment that Leyen has not yet supported a more radical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which, according to environmental organizations, should be more focused on climate and environment.
More information is available here.

The European Parliament's individual political factions have elected their agricultural policy coordinators; each faction will have one chief coordinator. Norbert Lins, a German MEP, was elected the Agricultural Coordinator for EPP, but he was also elected Chairman of the Agricultural Committee, therefore he had to leave the coordinator post to another candidate. Italian MEP Herbert Dorfmann was subsequently elected the new EPP coordinator; Spanish MEP Juan Ignacio Zoido was elected his deputy. Paolo De Castro, an Italian MEP, was elected the agricultural coordinator of the EP's second largest political group, S&D, and German MEP Ulrike Müller was elected the Renew Europe coordinator. German MEP Martin Häusling has become the Agricultural Coordinator for Greens, for GUE/NGL it is Irish MEP Luke Ming Flanagan. The ECR faction has not yet selected the Agriculture Coordinator. Among other things, the coordinators will decide on the future of the report on the CAP Strategic Plans, which was adopted by the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development in April 2019.

According to preliminary information, France will seek to win the post of Commissioner for Trade, a position that the current Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, has been keen to pursue. France might also be interested in the post of Commissioner for Competition. Among the candidates for the post of FR Commissioner are Michel Barnier, EU Brexit Negotiator, or Pascal Canfin, MEP for Renew Europe, Chairman of the EP Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.