The council of EU ministers for agriculture met in Luxembourg this Monday, with debates on the future CAP again focusing on budget and simplification issues.

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed supported the environmental ambition of the Commission's proposals for the CAP after 2020, but pointed to the need for a strong budget.

Two sides of the same coin

“Our ambitions for the environment and for the agriculture sector are two sides of the same coin, but we cannot continue to ask farmers to do more and more while at the same time proposing to cut the CAP budget,” he said.

There is not yet agreement on the EU budget to fund the next CAP.

Austrian minister Elisabeth Köstinger said after the meeting that the council had called for more flexibility in the way member states will each be allowed to set their own strategic plan to meet EU objectives in the next CAP.

This topic of simplification must be taken further

"The new delivery model and the new green architecture should not in any way lead to more of a burden for farmers and/or the administration," she said. "This topic of simplification must be taken further."

European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan agreed to keep working on simplification.

"What I’m proposing is less rules in the basic acts, less eligibility conditions, less controls and more flexibility about designing programmes that meet European common objectives," he said.

However, he also warned: "We cannot do everything voluntarily if we want to achieve common objectives in a level playing field."

He added that he hoped to have found agreements with the council of ministers by the end of this year or in the first half of next year, while the European Parliament also examines CAP proposals.

All three institutions must pass legislation before farm policy can be implemented.

Read more

Member States must increase CAP budget – Hogan

CAP should include suckler cow payment – MEP