Division in Brussels because of the ceiling on direct payments-politics

The ceilings and the reduction of direct payment budget were a hot topic during a meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture in Brussels.

The conclusions of the meeting are that there are a number of different views within the Member States’ on the above-mentioned most sensitive topics which are part of the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Some delegations requested that the possibilities for reducing baseline income support be limited. Others called for the eco-scheme payments to be excluded from the reductions in payments, and certain Member States also made the same request in terms of support for young farmers, annoinced ODZ-Kyustendil. Part of the Member States have called for the ceilings not to be mandatory, while others want mandatory enforcement in all countries.

Two delegations believe that the decision on the ceilings should be part of the discussions on the next multiannual financial framework (MFF). As regards the new agricultural reserve, the European Commission (EC) argued that without the proposed transfer mechanism needed to be constituted in 2021, a financial discipline of 5% would be required. The Commission also recommended that differentiated thresholds for financial discipline at Member State level not to be set.

There were also conflicting views on the transfer of unused amounts from the current crisis reserve and the maintenance of a threshold of 2 000 EUR for imposing financial discipline.