The European Parliament adopted by 503 votes to 87
with 13 abstentions, a resolution on the proposal for a regulation
of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial
rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and amending
Regulations (EU) No 1305/2013, (EU) No 1306/2013, (EU) No
1307/2013, (EU) No 1308/2013 and (EU) No 652/2014 of the European
Parliament and of the Council (agricultural provisions).
The position of the European Parliament at first
reading following the ordinary legislative procedure amends the
Commission proposal. The main amendments aim to do the
following:
- ensure legal certainty and harmonised and
non-discriminatory implementation of support to young
farmers,
- facilitate implementation of advisory and training
services by Member States´ Managing
Authorities;
- incentivise participation in quality schemes by
farmers or groups of farmers;
- make the sector-specific income stabilisation
tool more effective by allowing Member States to define, in
their rural development programmes, the income to be taken into
account for the activation of the tool, in a flexible manner. The
drop in income should exceed a threshold of at
least 20 %;
- provide effective assistance to emergency
operations undertaken by Member States in response to
catastrophic events and adverse climatic events;
- increase the maximum percentage of initial public
support from 65 % to 70 %, with a view to increasing
the use of crop, animal and plant insurance, and of mutual
funds and the income stabilisation tool;
- increase the threshold below which Member States may
decide not to pursue recovery of undue payments from EUR
150 to EUR 250 provided that the Member State applies an
equal or higher threshold for not pursuing national
debts;
- introduce a further derogation exempting small
farmers from declaring parcels on which a payment application
is not made;
- allow Member States to include certain shrubs or trees
which produce animal feed in permanent grassland where the
grasses and other herbaceous forage remain predominant, in the
whole or in part of their territory;
- clarify the classification prior to 2018 of
land lying fallow as arable land, where it had been in place
for five years or more, and provide certainty to the farmers
concerned, and allow Member States to maintain its classification
as arable land in 2018;
- grant Member States the opportunity to consider areas
suitable for pasture where grass and other herbaceous forage do not
predominate as permanent grassland in all or part of their
territory;
- allow Member States to review, on an annual basis,
their decisions on the reduction of the part of the basic payment
to be granted to farmers which is greater than EUR 150 000 provided
that this does not lead to a reduction in the amounts available for
rural development;
- enable Member States to tailor CAP assistance to
their specific needs by giving them the opportunity to review
their decision to transfer funds from their ceiling for direct
payments to their rural development programmes and vice versa
;
- simplify the rules applicable to greening
measures and improve their
consistency;
- streamline the existing exemptions from the crop
diversification obligation and the ecological focus area
obligation in Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013;
- facilitate the access of young farmers to the full
five years of payment for young farmers also in cases where
young farmers have not applied for support immediately after
setting up;
- grant Member States the possibility of deciding to
increase the percentage applied to calculate the amount of the
payment for young farmers in the range of 25 %
to 50 % and irrespective of the calculation method
applied;
- clarify the responsibilities of Member States
regarding the production limiting character of voluntary coupled
support and increase flexibility with regard to voluntary
coupled support;
- provide for the right of producers, producer
organisations or associations of producer organisations to require
a written contract in the milk sector, even if the Member
State concerned has not made the use of these contracts
mandatory;
- clarify the role and tasks of producer organisations
and associations of producer organisations: recognised producer organisations in all sectors for
which Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 establishes a common
organisation of the market would be authorised to exercise, on
behalf of their members, activities such as production planning,
cost optimisation, placing producer members' products on the market
and conducting contractual negotiations. Such activities should not
exclude competition and competition authorities should have the
right to intervene in such cases;
- strengthen the role of interbranch
organisations in view of the
important role they can play in enabling dialogue between actors in
the supply chain and promoting good practice and market
transparency. It is proposed to extend the list of objectives that
can be pursued by these organisations for measures to prevent and
manage risks to animal health, pest risks and environmental
risks.
In an Annex to the legislative resolution is a
statement by the European Parliament on the new rules on
producer organisations and competition law (CMO): Parliament
explains that the derogation provided for certain activities with
regard to the application of EU competition law is not absolute:
the competition authorities reserve the right to intervene if they
believe that the activities in question risk excluding competition
or compromising the objectives of the CAP.
A statement from the Commission confirms, inter alia:
- that expenditure relating to the 2014-2020 rural
development programmes approved in accordance with Regulation
(EU) No 1305/2013 will continue to be eligible for EAFRD
contribution if paid to the beneficiaries by latest 31 December
2023. The Commission will address the continuation of support
for rural development after 2020 in the context of its proposal for
the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF);
- that the operation of the reserve for crisis in
the agricultural sector and the reimbursement of appropriations in
application of financial discipline will be reviewed as part of the
preparation of the next MFF in order to allow an efficient and
rapid intervention in the event of a market crisis;
- that it intends to review the supply and demand
situation for plant proteins in the EU and to consider the
possibility of developing a ‘European plant protein
strategy’.
The Commission regretted that the issue of the very
limited role for both the Commission and the National Competition
authorities to act to preserve effective competition has not
been addressed in a satisfactory manner by the co-legislators, and
expresses concern with the possible implications of this limitation
for farmers and consumers.