A wide majority of 39 committee members to five voted in favour of the so-called omnibus legislation introduced by Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan last year and bogged down in lengthy negotiations with MEPs and EU member states in recent months.
Italian MEP Paolo de Castro, the parliament’s chief negotiator in the process, described the legislation as a “midterm review of the CAP”, covering 173 legislative changes to the operation of the CAP. These include:
Deputy de Castro said he expected the European Parliament plenary and the Council of EU ministers to give the legislation final approval next month, allowing it to enter into force on 1 January 2018. While this was the original plan, there had been doubts recently that this deadline could be met.
ANC connection
This schedule has a knock-on effect on payments to Irish farmers in Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC). Department of Agriculture officials said last week that they would decide how to distribute next year’s additional €25m ANC budget before the omnibus legislation comes into force because changes in EU rules could interfere with this process.