On Wednesday, Parliament approved a review of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation and the CAP Horizontal Regulation with 425 votes in favour, 130 against, and 33 abstentions. MEPs adopted the draft law with technical modifications proposed by the Council and endorsed by the Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture on 15 April 2024.
Next steps
The regulation now has to be approved by Council. The Belgian Presidency of the Council has informed Parliament that if MEPs endorse the proposal in the form agreed by the Council’s Special Committee on Agriculture, the Council will adopt the same text.
Following the approval by the Council, the law will be published in the EU Official Journal and enter immediately into force. Farmers will already be allowed to apply revised environmental “conditionalities” for their claims for EU financial support in 2024.
Background
The CAP review changes the rules for three environmental conditionalities farmers must adhere to in order to receive funding. It also provides more flexibility for EU countries to grant exemptions from CAP standards if there are problems with applying them and in case of issues caused by extreme weather. Small farms under 10 hectares would be exempt from controls and penalties for non-compliance with some CAP rules.
To speed up the adoption of the measures, the Parliament has agreed to deal with the file under its so-called urgent procedure.
Parliament decided on Tuesday to not object to the Commission proposal complementing the CAP simplification package. According to the text, member states will have more leeway when applying the CAP requirement to keep the ratio of permanent grassland to agricultural area above 5% compared to 2018 (GAEC 1).
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