CoR draft opinion approved

Photo credit: Committee of the Regions

On March 27th, the draft opinion of the President of the Auvergne Regional Council (PES/France) and former rapporteur on the Committe of the Regions own-initiative opinion on the future of the CAP was adopted by an overwhelming majority by the NAT commission.

The draft report of Mr Souchon on the “legislative proposals about the reform of the common agricultural policy and rural development after 2013” presents some key measures such as:

Regulation, degressivity and capping:

  • Need of a public regulation on agricultural market and need to examine again the impact of suppression of milk and sugar quotas and new vine planting right
  • Degressivity should be applied from 100 000€ with a maximum of 200 000€

Greening:

  • Greening measures to take into account agricultural, environmental and local realities, built by consulting the farmers
  • Grassland to be considered as Ecological Focus Areas (EFA)

Installation and coupled support:

  • Increasing the support for all new installation, focusing on young people
  • Maintaining coupled support, especially in natural constraints areas and remote areas

Rural Development:

  • Implementation of thematic sub-programmes of rural development focused on official quality label productions and periurban agriculture
  • A new governance for the CAP including a high level of involvement of the regions, in order decisions to be closer to local situations

Budget:

  • Maintaining the CAP budget at the current level

This draft report issue, which will be presented to the plenary of the Regions’ Committee on the 3th May, is to influence the European Parliament and Council in order to include the proposals within the juridical framework of the CAP after 2013.

Read the text of the draft opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and rural development policy post-2013, available on the CoR webpage in all EU languages

Find information on the Committee website here: http://www.cor.europa.eu/pages/PressTemplate.aspx?view=detail&id=349696d8-f26a-46cc-9127-c48798ce0ea5