A good development, however, which is not enough to cover their concerns, was described by the Minister for Rural Development and Food, the current decisions of the EU Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels on CAP changes in an interview with ERTnews. An assessment by Lefteris Avgenakis is that the coordinated work done in the previous period by our country, which has developed alliances at EUMED-9 and ERP level, has been attributed, resulting in the adoption of the 19 proposals tabled by the Greek side. “We had a first good development, but not enough. We have a good first element of the pressure and coordinated work done by our country and by other European states that we have allied, cooperated and succeeded. But that’s not enough. We insist that until before the European elections the European Commission should look beyond the 19 requests that we have tabled. 2% of the CAP’s money that ends in each country. To enable each Member State to deal with cases such as Greece, with Daniel using it, to absorb it without intermediate procedures and bureaucratic problems. To be able to transfer money, absorption, money from year to year from pillar 1 to pillar 2,” the minister said. Today (26.3.2024) the Council of Ministers adopted some of the proposals aimed at starting their implementation from spring this year. These changes are very targeted, as the HPAT said and aim to simplify the CFP and reduce the administrative burden on its implementation. The Greek Minister stressed that the following proposals should be examined immediately: To allocate 2% of the annual CAP budget to deal with climate crises for specific aid following climate disasters. To give flexibility to Member States to be able to modify the CFP Strategic Plan and transfer resources between the two Pillars or from year to year. There should be flexibility in the implementation of so-called ecological schemes and flexibility of derogations in their implementation where necessary. Lefteris Avgenakis struck the alarm that time is limitless for their approval, as for their immediate implementation they must have been promoted at all intermediate stages and in particular since the next plenary session of the European Parliament, the last, most likely, before the European elections. Time is pressing for the assessment of the HPAT, as he told ERTnews, is that the start of discussions will be accelerated and the next CFP will start a year earlier, within 2024. As the Minister for Rural Development and Food said, the Special Committee on Agriculture today approved the changes to the standards of good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAEC) proposed by the European Commission. One of the main changes is that a general provision is introduced allowing Member States to grant temporary and targeted derogations from certain conditions requirements in the event of unforeseen climatic conditions preventing farmers from complying with them. Once a year, Member States should inform the Commission of such derogations. The Greek Minister described this as “very important” but noted in his speech to the Council of Ministers that “the Commission document on the simplification of the application of the force majeure principle is also expected”. In addition, specific exemptions are introduced from certain GAEC standards, such as: for GAEC 6 on soil cover during sensitive periods: Member States will have greater flexibility to decide which territories to protect and at what time, based on national and regional specificities for GAEC 7 for crop rotation: rotation will remain the main practice, but Member States will be able to use crop diversification as an alternative. This is less demanding for farmers, especially in areas subject to drought or high rainfall for GAEC 8: farmers will only be obliged to maintain the existing characteristics of the landscape and from now on they will be encouraged, on a voluntary basis, to keep the land in fallow or create new landscape features through ecological systems, a change which Leiteris Aggenakis described as positive. The approved review shall also exclude small holdings of less than 10 hectares (100 acres) from controls and penalties related to compliance with conditions requirements under the CFP. This regulation concerns 65% of beneficiaries. In his speech to the Council of Ministers, the HPAT stressed that “the exemptions of small holdings from controls and sanctions of eligibility offer great relief to both administrations and small farmers in terms of reducing unnecessary administrative burdens.” The Committee on Agriculture also approved that EU countries should now be able to amend their strategic plans for the CAP twice a year on a permanent basis, as opposed to once, as is currently the case. Faster speed earlier the Minister for Rural Development and Food Lefteris Avgenakis, in his speech at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, called on the Commission to follow the necessary speed and to adopt the necessary amendments to the Strategic Plans concerning changes to the CFP quickly. It welcomed the flexibility proposed in subsidiarity in the application of ecological standards (GAEC 5, 6, 7 and 9), as respect should be shown for the Member States’ particular regional and local characteristics when selecting appropriate practices to comply with environmental obligations. At the same time, HPAT welcomed the decision “to set up a price observatory at all stages of the agri-food chain. It will help greatly to mitigate speculation phenomena. In addition, it can form the basis for a fairer distribution of profits among the rings in the chain, benefiting the primary sector traditionally in a more unfavourable position. Similarly, we expect constructively the proposals to improve the Directive on unfair commercial practices, the targeted amendments to the provisions of the COM on contracts for producer organisations, as well as the directives on simplifying the AMS system.” We insist on the 19 proposals by closing his speech to the Council of Ministers, Minister for Rural Development Lefteris Avgenakis said: “In any case we also support the Presidency’s intention to initiate deeper discussions on crisis management mechanisms and on trade issues related to agriculture. The CFP security net must be discussed more widely with a view to a holistic approach to action and funding, as the agricultural reserve is not sufficient. On the other hand, our trade relations must be balanced in terms of equal conditions of competition. But this correction is not enough. It is extremely small in view of the volume of issues to be corrected in the current CFP. I would remind you that we, our country, insist on the other (in 19) improvements, which we must make knowing the narrow time limits due to European elections. It is necessary to consider the possibility of transferring money from pillar to pillar from year to year in order to strengthen the absorption of resources. And we reiterate our position to enable each Member State to have, if it so wishes, 2% of the CFP to deal with the impact of the climate crisis. I would ask the Commission to look into this.’
Eggenakis for CAP change: “Good development, but not enough”
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