MEPs give final blessing to greener and fairer CAP

A deal with the Council on five legislative acts reforming EU farm policy was endorsed by Parliament on Wednesday. The post-2013 Common agricultural policy (CAP) will put more emphasis on environmental protection, ensure fairer distribution of EU funds and help farmers to cope better with market challenges.

Fairer distribution of EU funds

To ensure that direct payments go only to active farmers, MEPs persuaded Council to draw up a blacklist of entities, such as airports or sports clubs, to be automatically excluded from EU funding unless they prove that farming contributes a substantial share of their income.

Parliament also insisted on a mandatory EU-wide scheme to give young farmers an extra 25% in top-up payments for their first 25 to 90 hectares. Small farmers could also get more money, whereas large farms receiving more than €150,000 will see their payments above that level cut by at least 5%.

Greener farm policy without double funding

Under the new CAP, 30% of member states' budgets for direct payments may be spent only if mandatory greening measures, such as crop diversification, maintaining permanent grassland and creating "ecologically-focused areas", are carried out.

"Double funding", i.e. paying farmers twice for delivering the same set of environmental benefits, will not be allowed and farmers who fail to apply mandatory greening measures will face additional penalties on top of losing their “greening” subsidies, which will be phased in during the first four years of the new CAP.

Strengthening farmers' organisations

Parliament also ensured that farmers' organisations will be given additional tools to help farmers cope with market volatility and strengthen their price bargaining position.

Background

The CAP reform process, launched in Parliament in 2010, reached its final stage in June 2013 when negotiators for Parliament, the Council and the Commission reached a political agreement on the major issues. .

The final plenary vote comes after another round of negotiations in which the remaining issues have been resolved. The voted package includes four regulations on 2015-2020 EU farm policy and a regulation setting transitional rules for 2014. Read more in the background note (link to the right)

Result of votes

• The draft regulation on the direct payments rules was approved by 440 votes to 238, with 10 abstentions.
• The draft regulation on the rural development rules was approved by 576 votes to 101, with 11 abstentions.
• The draft regulation on common market organisation was approved by 426 votes to 253, with eight abstentions.
• The draft regulation on financing, management and monitoring rules was approved by 500 votes to 177, with 10 abstentions.
• The draft regulation on transitional rules for 2014 was approved by 592 votes to 81 votes, with 14 abstentions.