On the 1st and 2nd of April, the Members of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee proceeded to vote on the CAP reform-related reports on Strategic Plans and the Common Market Organisation (CMO), based on the proposals put forward by the European Commission in June 2018. Both reports, which entailed several legislative revisions and adjustments to the Commission’s proposals, were approved by a majority of 27 votes in favour to 17 against, with one abstention (Strategic Plans) and 29 votes in favour to seven against, with one abstention (CMO).
AREFLH welcomes the positive outcome of the votes as the adopted provisions represent an important step towards achieving a more competitive, attractive and resilient fruit and vegetable sector.
Concerning the amendments to the Strategic Plans regulation adopted by the Parliament’s agri-committee, AREFLH highly welcomes MEPs decision to:
- clarify the scope of the sectoral interventions for the F&V sector by ensuring the inclusion of fruits and vegetables earmarked for processing;
- enlarge the list of objectives through the addition of a specific objective on market orientation and competitiveness;
- broaden the list of corresponding interventions by including a new "market competitiveness" measure linked to the abovementioned objective:
- partially reduce the mandatory threshold for environmental expenditure in operational programmes;
- ensure additional financial assistance for associations of producer organisations;
- secure the transition between the current regime and the future one for operational programmes;
- introduce the eligibility of index-based insurances.
On the other hand, AREFLH regrets that other key provisions, such as the allocation of higher EU financial assistance rates for POs and APOs as well as the co-financing of the initial capital stock of mutual funds, have not been upheld.
Nevertheless, concerning the amendments to the CMO regulation, AREFLH is pleased that MEPs have opted to improve market transparency through the establishment of a single EU observatory that would collect statistical data on production, supply, prices, profits, imports and exports, and issue early market disturbance warnings for a wide range of sectors, including fruits and vegetables. AREFLH believes that such mechanism could allow a more transparent price transmission along the food chain as well as provide valuable information on market trends and forecasts. Still, we regret that additional legislative enhancements, such as the establishment of a European registry of agricultural land for F&V, have not been retained in the current agreement.
Finally, AREFLH also welcomes MEPs decision to vote in favor of maintaining the role of regions as managing authorities in the second pillar of the future CAP, thus ensuring that the CAP maintains a direct link with rural areas through the active involvement of regional actors.
In view of the upcoming European elections, AREFLH will persevere in its efforts, in partnership with the new European Parliament, the Commission and the Council, to ensure that the future CAP builds upon the positive outcomes of this vote.
For more information:
AREFLH
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www.areflh.org