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EU ministers failed to reach a unanimous conclusion on the future of agriculture at a meeting on Monday (June 24) due to differences over the balance of aid levels between member states.
Belgium, which has chaired EU Council meetings since January 1, wants ministers to approve the conclusions before Hungary takes over the rotating presidency next Monday (July 1).
“Unfortunately, in today’s discussion, and not before, the Romanian delegation seemed unable to support the text,” Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarininval told reporters after the Agriculture and Fisheries (AGRIFISH) Council ended.
Clarinval said ahead of the meeting that the document was intended to be a “message to the next commission” guiding negotiations on the future common agricultural policy (CAP).
Meanwhile, the future of the agricultural sector is being discussed in a parallel initiative Presentation The European Commission said in September it would promote “more dialogue and less polarisation”.
The Strategic Dialogue brought together 29 stakeholders from the food sector Already in meeting The EU has been working on agriculture since January and by September it is expected to publish a roadmap for EU agriculture.
But the text did not achieve the full consensus required, with only 25 member states supporting it, Romania voting against it and Slovakia abstaining.
The two countries disagreed on the Common Agricultural Policy Council’s External Convergence Mechanism, which aims to gradually coordinate payments between member states, Clarinval reported. This process started with the CAP reform in 2014 and is still ongoing.
Although the text proposed by the Belgian presidency mentioned the need to “ensure a fair distribution of CAP support among Member States, in particular direct payments”, Bucharest was not happy with the wording.
A Slovak spokesman told Euractiv that Bratislava generally supported the conclusions but would have preferred that they included commitments to speed up the process and allow farmers across the EU to have equal footing in access to direct payments.
In January, Slovakia – It has received support from Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Poland and Romania – submitted Note to the Board of Directors Calls for a revision of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to accelerate external integration.
A source close to the negotiations told Euractiv that Italy raised the same question last weekend, but from the opposite angle.
Rome, which has traditionally been cool to the convergence of financial support, endorsed the conclusions after receiving a statement annexed to the document, which clarified that “equitable distribution of CAP support” must take into account differences in purchasing power and production costs among member states.
If the document receives unanimous support, the Belgian presidency will be able to approve the Security Council’s conclusions. release The expression “Chairman’s conclusions” carries relatively little political weight.
However, Clarinval stressed that the conclusions represent a “broadly supported vision for the future of agriculture and set out our ambitions for agricultural competitiveness”.
Key topics
The text urges the European Commission to work towards a food strategy that ensures that EU food is “adequate, safe and sustainable”, stressing that “food safety”.
response Farmers protest The conclusions of the survey, which circulated across the EU earlier this year, acknowledged the “many reasons for dissatisfaction” expressed by the agricultural sector.
The so-called red tape in the CAP was one of the main concerns expressed by farmers. The conclusions acknowledge that EU rules “change frequently”, are complex and need to reduce their administrative burden.
The text urges the European Commission to continue monitoring EU policy and reiterates the role of national authorities in simplifying procedures.
“Member States are the first point of contact for farmers and are responsible for managing and allocating EU funds,” the document reads.
The ministers’ conclusions also supported a “fair, open, rules-based trading system” and a “level playing field” at the international level.
They cited a 2022 report by the EU executive that found there was room for the bloc to extend production standards to imported products in “full compliance” with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
The concept of a reciprocity standard – also known asMirror Clause” – In recent months, EU politicians have been trying to counter allegations of “unfair competition” from cheap imports from third countries, which has been at the heart of farmers’ protests.
In terms of sustainable development, this is also controversial On the issue, the ministers acknowledged that “protecting ecosystems is essential to ensuring food security.”
（Edited by Angelo Di Mambro Rajnish Singh)
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