The efforts of the European Committee of the Regions contributed to ensure that regions remain key actors in shaping, implementing and assessing CAP strategic plans.
Local communities' needs will weigh more in the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) investment decisions and regions will be among leading actors in shaping, implementing and assessing the national CAP strategic plans. This crucial result was achieved thanks to the work of the CoR, its intense cooperation with the European Parliament and – more recently - with the EU Commission. Regional and local leaders are ready to use the new CAP to deliver the Green Deal on the ground but urge Member States to set adequate rules to make this happen.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas,
President of the CoR, said: "
The voice and commitment of EU's regional and local leaders have made a
difference in the final deal on the future CAP. The reform proposed in
2018 by the previous Commission risked undermining the impact of this
crucial policy with a heavy centralisation. Thanks to our mobilisation
and the decisive cooperation with the European Parliament, we can now
reassure our citizens: the new EU's agricultural policy will listen to
them and not be a territorially blind, top-down policy. Only a renewed
partnership among EU, national and regional institutions can boost the
recovery of rural areas and the greening of Europe's agriculture.
"
The full involvement of regional authorities in the preparation and
governance of the CAP plans, the possibility for Member States to designate
Regional Managing Authorities for CAP interventions established at regional
level and the setting up of regional monitoring committees constitute a
clear improvement to the initial proposal of the CAP Strategic plan
regulation. The preparation of Strategic plans is mandatory for Member
States in order to benefit from the CAP financial resources.
"The proposal put forward by the CoR to include quantified environmental
targets to be reached by 2027 in the CAP Strategic Plans regulation was
not taken up. We therefore call on the EU Ministers for Agriculture to
make the CAP a key instrument for delivering the European Green Deal:
the national strategic plans should be approved by the Commission under
the condition that they comply with the green deal objectives
", underlined
Guillaume Cros
(FR/Greens), Vice-President of the Regional Council of
Occitanie and CoR rapporteur on the CAP reform.
The CoR welcomes the agreement reached on the common organization of the
markets (CMO). As requested by the CoR, measures, such as the voluntary
reduction of production, will be possible without waiting for another
crisis. "
A large proportion of farmers are selling their products at a loss and
have an income which fails to reflect the value of their work. In the
absence of fair farm prices and with no economic recognition, young
people will continue to shun farming. In a volatile market, market
regulation is more effective and less costly than the retroactive
triggering of measures
" explains Guillaume Cros.
Background information:
The CAP Strategic Plan regulation will define governance of the future CAP
within the framework of the New Delivery Model. The European Committee of
the Regions has repeatedly voiced its concerns regarding
the lack of a common vision on the role of regional authorities in the
governance of the future CAP. In the letters, co-signed by
Apostolos Tzitzikostas,
President of the CoR, and
Ulrika Landergren
(SE/RE), Chair of the CoR's Commission for Natural Resources (NAT), the CoR
called for European regions to play a key role in CAP management and for
delivery to be kept up and even bolstered, particularly for the second
pillar, so that policy choices can be tailored at a local level.
CoR members asked for the introduction of a clear role for regional
authorities in the management of rural development interventions,
supported by the European Parliament in its resolution on the
Common Agricultural Policy
.
On Monday 21 June, the European Court of Auditors released a
special report
stating that, during the programming period 2014-20, the CAP missed its
objective of making the EU agriculture more climate-friendly as it mostly
finances measures with a low potential to mitigate climate change.
The
regional and local barometer
published by the
European Committee of the Regions
in October 2020 found that 33% of EU citizens want regions and towns to
have more influence on EU agricultural and rural development policy.
Contact:
Wioletta Wojewodzka
Tel. +32 473 843 986
wioletta.wojewodzka@cor.europa.eu
Matteo Miglietta
Tel. +32 (0)470 895 382
matteo.miglietta@cor.europa.eu