The Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament met European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan on Monday night for the first time since he unveiled his detailed plans for the CAP after 2020.

A major point of debate was the proposal to have the EU set broad objectives and budgets while each member state would decide on the rules and schemes under which to apply them.

French MEP Eric Andrieu said this amounted to a “renationalisation of the Common Agricultural Policy". His German colleague Albert Dess and Northern Ireland MEP James Nicholson both warned of increased bureaucracy as a result of this model.

Common policy?

Commissioner Hogan countered that "the CAP remains a truly common policy with a capital C" and will deliver "genuine simplification" by keeping countries accountable on nine key objectives, loosening EU control on the day-to-day running of schemes and authorising more automation of applications and checks, such as satellite inspections. This "will reduce the control burden on our farmers", he said. "Member states will be able to offer small farmers a lump sum payment, a far simpler administrative procedure than calculating the amounts originating from different schemes," he added.

But German MEP Ulrike Müller was not convinced, saying each country would still need to inspect farmers. “I don’t know how [member states’ strategic plans and performance reports] is going to simplify things for farmers”, she said.

Budget

Commissioner Hogan admitted that one of the biggest challenges is the budget, confirming that an almost 5% cut in funding would translate to 12% in constant prices over the period 2021-2027. He explained that the Commission's proposal focused on protecting direct payments and directed most of the cuts to rural development budgets, where member states can fill the gap individually if they wish.

However, French MEP Michel Dantin said it would be hard to explain this to farmers: "We've just been through three of the worst years in terms of farm incomes and the Commission's proposal is all about cuts."

James Nicholson agreed and mentioned the added threat of a Mercosur trade deal to farm incomes.

Irish MEP Matt Carthy criticised the proposal for failing to implement a €60,000 cap on each farm's payments as originally expected. Instead the payment capping rules in the full proposal are "riddled with loopholes" and mean this will be a "mirage", he said.

Commissioner Hogan said his proposal was "a starting point" that would be improved with the Parliament and the Council of ministers representing member states, who also control the budget.

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