EPP Group : CAP reform: MEPs set tone for Council negotiations with key vote

Press Release 24/01/2013

The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) passed its first legislative hurdle as Members of the European Parliament concluded a crucial round of votes on four Regulations today (Thursday). However, MEPs have warned that adequate EU budgetary resources are vital for a successful CAP.

Giovanni La Via MEP, EPP Group Rapporteur on Financing, management and monitoring of the CAP, stresses the need to manage CAP funds in a simpler, more effective manner:

"The European Parliament has repeatedly stressed the urgent need to make life easier for farmers simplifying the complex administrative machinery. This is why we are seeking to make controls and sanctions more proportionate, with the setting up of a multiannual application for farmers and an alarm system in order to avoid sanctions in case of non-intentional negligence."

EPP Group Rapporteur on Direct Payments, Mairead McGuinness MEP, said maintaining a fair level of income support is a priority:

"A key part of our vote on CAP reform is to ensure that direct payments are targeted at active farmers engaged in production and land management. However, we cannot ask farmers to do more, yet offer them less by way of support payments. Direct supports constitute a significant part of farm incomes and any severe cuts to pillar one or pillar two payments must be resisted. Our vote also provides flexibility for member states in moving away from historic based payments and provides for measures to ensure that the vulnerable livestock sector is protected."

More balanced producer-retailer relationships must be developed through the empowerment of farmers, according to EPP Group Rapporteur for the Common markets organisation regulation, Michel Dantin MEP:

"The idea that farmers should band together must not translate into cartels, but it should allow them to break free of the economic dependence and to guarantee a decent standard of living for the farming population. Establishing strong producer organisations for all sectors with much greater freedom of action than originally proposed by the Commission proposal is an appropriate way to achieve that aim."

Elisabeth Köstinger MEP, EPP Group Shadow Rapporteur on Support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, agrees that competitiveness will play an integral part of a successful CAP:

"Farms that already participate in agricultural-environmental schemes will be recognised as 'green by definition' and exempt from additional greening requirements. The programmes of the Fund for Rural Development are particularly important to us. They create growth and competitiveness and are a crucial part of the CAP. Today, the European Parliament asked also to give increased attention to the so called 'less favoured areas' like mountain regions and support them with the Fund for Rural Development."

EPP Group Vice-Chairman, Marian-Jean Marinescu MEP, concluded:

"Today's vote is a show of strong support for the European farming sector and especially for young farmers. We have achieved a balanced solution that preserves production with necessary greening elements. We now ask that the European Council allocates appropriate financial resources to the CAP so Europe can sustain a viable future for our farming and agri-food sectors."

Negotiations on the amended CAP reform proposals are now due to take place between the Parliament and Council, as co-legislators.

For further information:
Giovanni La Via MEP, Tel: [phone]
Mairead McGuinness MEP, Tel: [phone]
Michel Dantin MEP, Tel: [phone]
Elisabeth Köstinger MEP, Tel: [phone]
Marian-Jean Marinescu MEP, Tel: [phone]
Cliona Connolly, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, Tel: [phone]
Marion Jeanne, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors:
The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 270 Members and 3 Croatian Observer Members.