AGRICULTURE :
The main objective of the two-day Council is to make a significant step towards concluding the CAP reform negotiations, with a view to adopting a reformed CAP for the period 2023-2027. Ministers will discuss the remaining political elements in the three proposed regulations (CAP strategic plans, horizontal regulation and common market organisation).
An inter-institutional meeting on all three regulations (a ‘super trilogue') will take place the week before the Council session, the results of which will inform the ministers' discussion. Some of the main issues where the co-legislators 'positions are not aligned and on which ministers will focus during the Council debate can be grouped as follows:
- Green architecture: this includes the nature of eco-schemes and the possible ring-fencing of specific amounts for these new instruments.
- Green Deal alignment: this includes whether and when national CAP strategic plans should be updated to take into account new legislation arising from the farm-to-fork and biodiversity strategies.
- Targeting of payments: this includes questions regarding the definitions of ‘active farmer' and ‘new farmer', the voluntary or obligatory reduction of payments (capping), voluntary or mandatory payments for small farmers, optional or obligatory redistributive payments and other provisions.
- New delivery model: this includes questions on the number of result indicators to be used for the performance review of the CAP strategic plans, conditionality controls and the simplification of the model.
- Market management and exceptional measures: this includes questions on public interventions and private storage aids, tariffs on trade with third countries, competition rules and other provisions.
- Crisis management measures: this includes the use of the crisis reserve fund(introduced in the 2013 CAP reform) and how it should be financed.
- Social conditionality:this includes how the CAP should contribute to ensuring respect for farm workers' labour and social rights
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Full background brief available via the link below.
