The second vote on CAP reform focussed on the new EU rules
for direct payments and rural development after 2020. The
Agriculture Committee’s amendments to the so-called
Strategic plans regulation were approved on Tuesday by 27
votes in favour to 17 against, with one abstention.
On Monday, MEPs approved the
CAP reform-related common market organisation rules.
Reducing payments to bigger farms, supporting small,
young and women farmers
Member states should cap annual direct payments to farmers
at the level of €100.000, but they could allow farmers to
deduct 50% of agriculture-related salaries from the total
amount before the reduction, MEPs say. They also want to
channel at least 5% of national direct payments to small
and medium-sized farmers through a special per-ha top-up.
At least 2% of national direct payments budgets should go
to young farmers (per-ha top-up for the first seven years).
Further support for young farmers should be granted from
rural development funding.
MEPs also want member states to use rural development money
for specific actions to promote greater inclusion of women
in rural economies.
The committee also insisted that all per hectare payments
for farmers within EU states or their territories reach at
least 75% of their average direct subsidies by 2024 and
100% by 2027.
Strategic plans: New delivery model postponed until
2022
The so-called new delivery model based on national
strategic plans to be drafted by member states and approved
by the EU Commission, should be delayed by one year until
2022 to allow more time for them to adjust, the Agriculture
Committee said..
Extending eco-schemes to protect animal welfare
too
MEPs want to dedicate at least 30% of the rural development
budget to environmental and climate-related measures and
not less than 20% of direct payments to eco-schemes. These
voluntary eco-schemes should support not only the
environment, but also animal welfare.
More information on boosting advisory services for
farmers, definition of active farmer, levelling direct
payments and rules for transferring money between
pillars are
available here.
Quote
“I tried to strike a balance between supporting farmers and
protecting the environment. Green architecture has been
strengthened, putting a stronger accent on an
incentive-based approach. A fairer distribution of the
payments has been proposed to support farming SMEs”, said
rapporteur Esther Herranz García
(EPP, ES).
“The key priority was to safeguard the common rules to
protect EU policy and treat farmers across the EU equally
and avoid market distortion, while giving more leeway to
member states to adapt to their particular domestic
situations. The committee has also insisted on maintaining
the CAP budget at its current level and I hope the EU
governments support our call to maintain a strong CAP”, she
added.
Next steps
The text approved by Agriculture Committee MEPs has to be
scrutinised by the Parliament as a whole. This can happen
only after the 23-26 May European elections. The Conference
of Presidents (EP president and leaders of political
groups) may
decide then to forward the text to the full House.
Otherwise, the new Agriculture Committee will have to look
into the matter again.
