Commission 'responding to need for more flexible CAP' - McConalogue
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The European Commission is "responding to the need for a more flexible and simpler" Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue has said.
Speaking at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on Tuesday in Brussels, Minister McConalogue welcomed the approach to "easing the administrative burden for farmers".
During its meeting on February 26, 2024, the Agriculture and Fisheries Council confirmed its intention to respond to the concerns voiced by farmers and urged the commission to come up with a proposal to amend the CAP regulations.
On March 15, the commission published its proposal.
Today, member states' representatives in the Special Committee on Agriculture endorsed a targeted review of certain basic acts of the CAP proposed by the European Commission.
This review seeks to address issues encountered, for instance, with the implementation of the CAP strategic plans and aims to deliver simplification, reduce the administrative burden, and provide greater flexibility for complying with certain environmental conditionalities.
Mr McConalogue said that farmers "need stability and space to plan their futures".
"I will continue to work with member states to ensure that we have a strong and effective CAP that continues to support sustainable food production in the EU," he added.
The Special Committee on Agriculture today endorsed changes to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) standards proposed by the European Commission.
GAECs are a set of nine standards beneficial to the environment and the climate that apply to farmers who receive support under the CAP.
One of the main proposed changes is for a general provision to be introduced allowing member states to grant temporary and targeted derogations from certain conditionality requirements in the event of unforeseen climate conditions that prevent farmers from complying with them.
Once per year, member states will have to inform the commission about such derogations.
Additionally, specific exemptions from certain GAEC standards are proposed, such as:
- GAEC 6: member states will have more flexibility to decide which soils to protect and in which season, based on national and regional specificities;
- GAEC 7: crop rotation will remain the main practice, but member states will be able to use crop diversification as an alternative;
- GAEC 8: farmers will only be obliged to maintain existing landscape features and will from now on be encouraged, on a voluntary basis, to keep land fallow or to create new landscape features through eco-schemes.
The endorsed revision of CAP also exempts small farms of under 10 hectares from controls and penalties related to compliance with conditionality requirements under the CAP.
Since this concerns 65% of CAP beneficiaries but only accounts for around 10% of agricultural land, it is expected to reduce the administrative burden related to controls for farmers and national administrations but remain beneficial for the environment.
Mr McConalogue has also welcomed the commission’s proposals to increase the requirement for gathering market data and to assess the implementation of the Unfair Trading Practices Directive to date.
“I am pleased to see the commission address the position of farmers in the value chain. In Ireland, I have established a fully independent agri-food regulator, An Rialálaí Agraibhia, to bring a new and enhanced focus to the regulation of unfair trading practices," he commented.
"I have also ensured that the regulator has an important function in analysis and reporting on price and market data. I am confident that these measures can enhance the position of farmers and improve transparency in the supply chain.”
Today's developments come as European farmers took to the streets of Brussels again to show their frustration with environmental regulations, administrative burden, trade agreements, and squeezed margins.
The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), a movement made up of farmers seeking fairer and more sustainable agricultural systems, said that the protest, led by one of their Belgian member organisations FUGEA, is seeking an "adequate response to our key demand centred on fair incomes and fair prices for farmers".
The ECVC said it is seeking an end to free-trade agreements and unfair competition, starting with a definite halt to negotiations on the EU-Mercosur deal; strengthening the EU Directive on Unfair Trading Practices to legally ensure that prices are higher than farmers' production costs; and the regulation of markets via the CAP to ensure fair and stable prices.
The movement said that the recent proposals from the European Commission are "insufficient to tackle the root causes that have driven farmer protests across Europe for months".
