. – The AGRI Committee voted on 28 April their report on the CAP transitional regulation, which is meant to allow a transition period while negotiations on the future new CAP are still ongoing. This report proposes rather the continuation of the current less-than-green CAP for the next two years. It proposes nothing new in terms of farming practices and is not addressing the problems of inequalities in direct payments between Member States (so-called external convergence).We argue for a more environmentally-sound transition and a fairer distribution of funds, as the CAP represents about 35% of the EU budget (circa EUR 100 billion over two years). Therefore we tabled this objection to the rapporteur’s request to directly negotiate with the two other EU institutions on the basis of the AGRI report, without passing through plenary vote.The CAP shapes the whole food system with massive impacts on regional development, the climate, biodiversity and health. It is high time stringent environment protection measures were included in the future CAP. We must move away from using direct payments as a simple support for agricultural income, towards a more targeted form of support that rewards sustainable farming practices and investments.
2020/05/15