AGRI ICM on 'The development of CAP Strategic plans in each Member States', 18 November 2021

Haystack rolled in ballots on a field — © European Parliament. Images used under the license from Adobe Stock.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, this meeting was held remotely via a videoconference on Thursday, 18 November 2021 from 9.00 to 10.45 and from 11.15 to 13.30 at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The development of CAP strategic plans in each Member State: European and national parliamentarians debate on this crucial aspect of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) of the European Parliament with the Legislative Dialogue Unit from the Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments co-organized an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting on 'The development of CAP strategic plans in each Member State'. Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting was held at the European Parliament in Brussels and remotely via videoconference on 18 November 2021. The event was chaired by Elsi Katainen (4th Vice-Chair of AGRI) and included some 30 AGRI Members in the meeting room and 54 MPs were connected online from 23 Member States and 30 Chambers. Many of whose took the floor to contribute to the debate launched by the three CAP rapporteurs, supported by three journalists and structured in three different panels. The meeting took place in a critical moment for the future of the CAP, a few months after the agreement reached among the three Institutions and a few days before the vote in plenary and in the Council, and just six weeks before the deadline for Member States to present their Strategic Plans.

Jože Podgoršek, Slovenian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food and Sophie Primas, Chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs (and co-chair of the working group concerning the CAP reform) at the French Senate, opened the meeting.

The first session, opened by the rapporteur Peter Jahr on the Strategic Plans Regulation (SPR) and Petr Orel, Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on EU Affairs and Member of the Sub-Committee on Agriculture of the Committee on National Economy, Agriculture and Transport of the Czech Senate, showed that strategic plans implementation represents a huge challenge for Member states. Then a lively exchange of views took place with the participation of national parliamentarians and MEPs.

The second session, opened by the Common Market Organisation (CMO) rapporteur Eric Andrieu and Manuel González Ramos, from the Spanish Congress of Deputies, showed that, with the latest agreement on the CAP reform, Member states can support Producer Organisations from all sectors, helps to provide a greater economic balance in the food chain and enhance farmers' bargaining power.

Ulrike Müller, rapporteur for the Horizontal regulation (FMM) and Kristina Yngwe, Chair of the Committee on Environment and Agriculture from the Swedish Riksdag, introduced the third session focused on analysing how would the link between the objectives in the strategic plans, the result indicators and the reporting and controls be established to ensure the assessment of actual performance.

Commissioner Wojciechowski, in his conclusions, underlined that all actors must ensure that strategic plans are of good quality and deliver on the enormous sustainability challenges. The success of the new CAP will depend on the quality of the strategic plans, their levels of ambition, and, crucially, on the uptake of voluntary measures by farmers. Therefore, it is important to fully include farmers, experts, and rural stakeholders in this process, to translate European ambitions into a relevant, well-designed mix of interventions that will work on the ground. The Commissioner concluded his speech by calling on the representatives of National and European Parliament to engage, share expertise and passion for the CAP reform to be a success.