On Monday, the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament is considering the resumption or continuation of trilogue negotiations on the ‘greening’ of agricultural policy. With the help of civil service officials in Brussels, an overview is being compiled of what the consequences would have been of the (rejected) proposal by the Council of Ministers.
The trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament, European Commission, and the 27 agriculture ministers on the Green Deal in EU agricultural policy stalled on Friday morning, but no one is yet calling it a failure. The discussions have been postponed, as the official terminology states. Most reactions speak of a ‘deadlock’ or ‘suspension.’
The European Commission hopes that Portugal will still obtain new negotiating room from the agriculture ministers at the Agriculture Council on June 28 and 29. If that unexpectedly does not succeed, Portugal will have to hand over the dossier to its successor Slovenia, which threatens much greater delays.
The negotiations stalled over the question of how much Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidy should be earmarked for the Green Deal in agriculture: 20% (as most EU countries wanted) or 30% (as the European Parliament and European Commission want).
Earlier this month, the Portuguese presidency proposed a compromise of 25%, which was already ‘a tough pill to swallow’ for many EU countries. Many Members of the European Parliament initially responded positively.
But on Thursday evening, the Franco-German reveal came to light: that 25% would only take effect in 2025, after two ‘voluntary’ trial years, with a lower limit of 18%, and any unused environmental funds would still have to remain within the sector (via the second pillar).
The last point was seen by the European Parliament negotiators as a new attempt by the agriculture ministers to backtrack or delay. They pointed out that the greening of agricultural subsidies was already announced in 2020, and has been postponed and delayed twice by the agriculture ministers.
EP chief negotiator Norbert Lins (D) called on the Council of Ministers to return to the negotiating table. He expressed great disappointment that the Portuguese presidency had broken off the negotiations. ‘This step is bad for all our farmers and for the protection of the climate and the environment. Farmers now have no certainty about the timetable, and urgently needed measures are still being delayed.’
There is also a risk that in EU countries the adoption of national CAP programs will now come to a halt.