To ensure a CAP policy is agreed as soon as possible MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee have agreed to resume work on the EU’s farm policy based on what was agreed by the old committee in April.

Following European elections in May, there had been fears that a new agriculture committee may want to scrap agreed proposals.

The committee’s new chair Norbert Lins said: “The agriculture committee decided today [Wednesday] to ask the Conference of Presidents to allow us to resume our work on the EU farm policy reform on the basis of what was approved in April this year.”

Lins said the new MEPs must be given a chance to contribute to the new policy. However, to save time and provide farmers and consumers with clarity sooner rather than later, MEPs wanted to avoid starting the debate on the future of CAP from scratch.

The agreed proposals will be forwarded to the Conference of Presidents (COP) who will decide by 19 September whether to forward the texts to the full House or to ask the new committee to start working on them again.

The committee also debated the priorities for agriculture of the Finnish Council Presidency with Finnish Agriculture Minister Jari Leppä.

The debate focused on ways to ensure the CAP remains a common and properly funded EU policy and becomes simpler and more sustainable.

Many MEPs expressed concerns over the impact trade agreements, particularly the EU-Mercosur one, might have on farmers.

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