MAGAZINE - Copa-Cogeca

6 │ April 2012
MEP LA VIA warns final
decision on CAP could be
held up by EU budget talks
MEP Giovanni la Via warned in an interview that a final
decision on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
could be held up by talks on the EU budget for 2014-2020,
preventing implementation of the new CAP reform on January
1 2014.
In an interview with Copa-Cogeca, Mr Giovanni La Via , who
is rapporteur on the financing, management and monitoring
aspects of the EU Commissions’ proposals on the future CAP,
said he doubts there will be an agreement on priorities for the
new EU financial framework 2014-2020 under the Danish
Presidency. This will make it difficult to get a final agreement
on it by the deadline of December 2012. It will also be hard
to agree in 2013 in view of the German elections, he added. So
far, seven Member States, namely UK, Germany, NL, Sweden,
Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, have argued
that expenditure proposed under the Commission proposal
must be cut whilst the majority viewed it as a good basis
for discussion, underlining the need for a strong CAP and
Cohesion Policy.
Without an agreement, there will not be a final vote in
Parliament´s Agriculture Committee on the future CAP
which could delay implementation of the new CAP reform
scheduled for January 1 2014, he added. Mr La Via, together
with MEPs Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos and Michel Dantin
who are reporting on behalf of European Parliament on the
Commissions’ proposals on the future CAP, have also agreed
to state in their reports that if the final vote on the budget
is different from the Commission proposals, everything will
have to be re-thought. He believes that there must be a strong
budget to fund the future CAP. Copa-Cogeca believes too that
there needs to be a strong budget and that its crucial first to
agree on the EU budget for 2014-2020 before making a final
decision on the future CAP.
Mr Giovanni La Via went on to highlight the need for much
more simplification in the Commissions proposals on the
future CAP and for procedures to be streamlined. He pointed
out that there are currently 81 payment agencies at EU level
and many regional agencies. For example in Italy, there are
five different payment agencies in one region. He insisted that
Giovanni la Via
there should only be one national payment agency in each
member state, with delegated regional offices, to ensure there
is one system in each country. He also believes that sanctions
charged to farmers for not complying with the proposed new
rules under the CAP are too severe in some cases. For example,
farmers not applying mandatory greening measures under
the Commission proposal could lose not only 30% of their
direct payments but also a cut in the basic payment. He wants
clarification on this and believes sanctions should be reduced
for small farmers if for example they do not manage to comply
with the rules on taking 7% of land out of production. Copa-
Cogeca also believes the penalties are unacceptable