New MEPs stick with full flattening of CAP payments

MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee have decided to keep the previous committee’s position on the CAP reform and not start the review process from scratch.

Independent MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan told the Irish Farmers Journal that the coordinators of the agriculture committee, the leading MEPs from each political grouping, met on Tuesday to decide on whether to keep the last committee’s position or review the draft proposals for the next CAP set out by the Commission.

There was two options on the table, he said – to either pick up from where they left off and send the changes made by the last committee to plenary or restart the whole review process.

The MEPs leaned “very much towards option a – resumption” of the last committee’s position, according to Flanagan, but he also noted that MEPs may choose to refer the position back to the new committee under Rule 198 of the Procedure of the European Parliament.

“We are waiting for the secretariat to come back to us on this,” he said.

Compromise

“We’re not restarting the whole [review] process.

“We need to find a compromise between the ENVI [environment] committee and the agriculture committee,” Flanagan said.

The last agriculture committee, of which Flanagan was also a member, voted in favour of a flat-rate BPS payment of €185/ha by 2027 (€266 including greening) as part of the next CAP.

This would see all farmers receive the same payment per hectare, bringing historical payments to an end.

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