The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development is currently working on an own-initiative report “CAP towards 2020: meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future” and the different political groups are now trying to find a common ground. This is done by agreeing on compromise amendments to the draft report which are meant to reduce the large number of amendments tabled by the committee members.
The current draft compromise amendments, proposed by the rapporteur Albert Dess, are expected to reduce the number of amendments to be voted from 1300 to around 1000. But the staff of political groups continues exchanging views and believes that more work needs to be done in order to further reduce the sheer number of amendments and achieve a substantially shortened text. The report will need a concise structure and an unmistakable wording if the European Parliament, with its new co-decision powers, wants to send a clear and strong message to the European Commission and the Council of the Member States.
Unsolved key points are the greening of the CAP, the capping of direct payments, cross compliance and simplification, small farmers and rural development. This means that there is still a lot of work to be done before the committee vote on 25 May.
Follow this link to the European Parliament’s website if you want to access the dossier of the report including the draft report and all tabled amendments.
