27.06.2024

No consensus on the future of agriculture in the EU because of a dispute over subsidies

EU ministers failed to reach unanimity in their conclusions on the future of agriculture at a meeting earlier in the week. The reason for this was a disagreement about the equalization of the level of aid between member states, it reports Euractiv.

The Belgian EU presidency, which took over EU Council meetings from January 1, had hoped to get ministers to approve the conclusions before Hungary takes over the rotating presidency next Monday (July 1).

"Unfortunately, the Romanian delegation did not want to support the text," Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval said after a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH).

The strategic dialogue brings together a total of 29 stakeholders in the food sector, who have been meeting since January. They are expected to unveil a roadmap for EU agriculture by September.

But the text fell short of the necessary full consensus, with 25 member states backing it, Romania voting against and Slovakia choosing to abstain.

According to Clarinval, both sides have expressed their opposition to the CAP's external convergence mechanism, which aims to gradually align payments between member states. The process started with the 2014 CAP reform and is still ongoing.

Although the text proposed by the Belgian Presidency mentions the need to ensure a fair distribution among Member States of CAP support and in particular for direct payments, Bucharest was not happy with the wording.

A Slovakian spokesman said Bratislava supported the conclusions in general but would have preferred them to include a commitment to speed up the process and allow farmers across the EU to be on a level playing field when it comes to receiving direct payments.

In January, Slovakia – supported by Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania – submitted a note to the Council calling for a review of the CAP to speed up external convergence.

In the absence of agreement, the text was published as "presidency conclusions", a wording with less political weight.

"However, the conclusions represent a widely supported vision for the future of agriculture and set out our ambitions for a competitive sector," Clarinval stressed.

Key themes

The text urges the European Commission to work towards a food strategy that ensures sufficient, safe and sustainable food availability in the EU, emphasizing the concept of food security.

Responding to the wave of farmer protests that spread across the bloc earlier this year, the conclusions acknowledge the many causes of discontent expressed in the agricultural sector.

The high level of perceived red tape in the CAP was one of the main concerns expressed by farmers. The conclusions acknowledge the frequent changes in EU rules, their complexity and the need to reduce their administrative burden.

The text calls on the European Commission to continue monitoring EU policies and also recalls the role of national authorities in simplifying procedures.

"Member States are the first points of contact for farmers and are responsible for the management and distribution of EU funds," the document says.

The ministerial conclusions also support a fair, open, rules-based trading system and a level playing field at the international level.

They refer to a 2022 report by the EU executive that found room to expand the bloc's manufacturing standards for imported products in full respect of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.