Parliament to reject 'any weakening' of CAP as it prepares for negotiations
The European Parliament will reject "any weakening" of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as its members prepare for intense negotiations in the coming weeks.
The parliament’s co-rapporteurs for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), Siegfried Muresan and Carla Tavares spoke at a briefing on parliament's priorities and expectations for the EU's post-2027 long-term budget.
The European Commission's MFF proposals are due to be unveiled on Wednesday (July 16), along with proposals on the format of the CAP post-2027.
Siegfried Muresan, the parliament's chief negotiator on the EU's long-term budget, said that the position of the parliament is "clear".
He said that MEPs believe there must be certainty provided for farmers, and that parliament's priority is that there is a distinct budget for farmers, separate legal bases for cohesion and agriculture, and a clear role for regions in cohesion policy.
"In the position of the European Parliament adopted at the beginning of May, we clearly reject the maximalist idea of the European Commission of introducing single national plans, which would water down traditional priorities of the EU, which would water down the CAP and cohesion policy," he said.
Agriculture is one of the areas in which the EU has "very significant responsibilities and competencies", Muresan stated.
"This is why the European Parliament demands that the CAP and cohesion policy continue as distinct priorities with separate budgets, with separate legal bases."
The EU has "new priorities" for its next seven-year budget, Muresan said, which need to include security and defence, and competiveness.
"Competitiveness is a new priority and we expect that all programmes in the budget have to contribute to the improvement of competitiveness.
"The CAP has to make a clearer contribution to the improvement of competitiveness."
The size of the overall budget will be "one of the most difficult parts of the negotiations" after the commission reveals its proposals, he added.
"Oe thing we can say now already - we will not accept any weakening of the CAP and cohesion policy," Muresan said.
"We expect the same funding as in the previous MFF and in the areas of new priorities, particularly security and defence, we expect significant increases.
"This means that for the total level of the budget, we believe that the EU cannot do more with the same amount or less.
"So we believe that in the end, an increase of the budget will be unavoidable."
He said that if there is no separate budget for agriculture, "we don't consider that the basis for discussions", and "we will reject the proposal of the commission".
"We can already say now that we will not start the [discussion] process if there is no clear, distinct CAP and cohesion policy, with distinct budgets and with separate legal bases."
There is a majority in the parliament demanding the "same level of funding for the CAP" as existed in the previous MFF, adjusted to inflation rate, Muresan said."Farmers in the last years were asked to make many efforts in the transition to the green economy," he said.
"They had to cope with price volatility, with extreme weather conditions, and this is why they continue to need our support.
"If we're looking at what is happening in the Middle East, in Northern Africa, in Ukraine, it is clear that we need to produce more food in Europe, not less.
"It is clear that food security is becoming a key element of national security.
"There cannot be national security without food security."
