EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans told Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg that the European Commission remains committed to the common European agricultural policy.
Timmermans says he will defend his Green Deal environmental plans in agricultural discussions to the utmost; even if his plans are 'scaled down,' he will not withdraw them.
Next week in Lisbon, the so-called Jumbo-Trilogue will meet, consisting of EU Commissioners, Members of the European Parliament, and the EU Presidency, in a final attempt to reach agreement on a major reform of agricultural policy. The 27 EU Agriculture Ministers have also moved up their summit meeting so they can directly involve themselves in these final negotiations.
In recent months, most European institutions have reached compromises on various issues and agreed on treaty texts. However, significant differences remain concerning, among other things, a 'ban' or a 'restriction' of chemical pesticides, and the 'voluntary' or 'mandatory' expansion of animal welfare.
In the coming days, an agreement might be reached between 'more targeted environmental policies in agriculture' and 'no European rules and bans, but guidelines and subsidies.'
Such an agreement will mainly depend on whether there are enough environmental realists who recognize that improvements to the environment are occurring in EU agricultural policy, and whether the agricultural lobby understands that 'plodding along' will turn out to be 'farming backwards.'
Young climate activists who seek to halt what they call the 'scaled down and incomplete reform of climate policy in agricultural politics' will now mainly focus their attention, energy, and protests on the European Parliament.
Their best ally so far, the Commission’s Vice-President Frans Timmermans, has made it clear that his hands are tied on this dossier.
Timmermans told the activists last Monday that he shares their concerns, but that he cannot act unilaterally and simply scrap the CAP. In November, he hinted at the possibility of withdrawing the Commission’s proposal if it did not meet the new climate and environmental standards of the Green Deal and the Paris Agreement.
The Climate Youth indicated that they do not rule out legal action against a new CAP policy. They refer to court rulings in the Netherlands and Germany, where judges have ruled in cases that 'the government must do more to protect the environment.'