EU farm policy reform: Council must be more flexible – we cannot waste more time
May 28 2021
EU farm policy reform: Council must be more flexible – we cannot waste more time

Council’s lack of flexibility threatens security for EU farmers, Agriculture Committee Chair Norbert Lins warned, calling on Council to return to proper negotiations.

Chair of the Agriculture Committee and head EP negotiator on the post-2022 EU farm policy Norbert Lins (EPP, DE) issued the following statement after the lack of results in this week’s “supertrilogue” negotiations:

“For the past six months we have been negotiating in good faith, trying to deliver a greener, fairer and future-oriented Common Agricultural Policy for our farmers and consumers. This week, Parliament’s negotiators engaged in intensive talks trying to deliver a deal by the end of the week that would be fit for purpose and give member states and farmers enough time to prepare.

I am very disappointed that the Portuguese Council Presidency has broken off negotiations on the CAP today. If you want an agreement, you have to be ready to negotiate and be flexible. The Council Presidency seemed surprised that we did not simply rubber-stamp their compromise proposal, but stated our own red lines. I expect the Council to respect directly elected representatives as co-legislators. This is already the second reform after the Lisbon Treaty and the Parliament will not give up on our citizens’ expectations to give way to Council’s demands.

This step is bad for all our farmers and for climate and environmental protection. Farmers now lack planning security and urgently needed measures continue to be delayed. This is a serious blow to the negotiations, and I hope Council realises there are consequences to their stubborn approach.

In the coming days, we will discuss the recent developments internally. Parliament stands ready to resume negotiation with the Portuguese Council Presidency before the end of their mandate at the end of June, but only if Council shows more flexibility. I hope they return to the negotiating table with a renewed mandate to approve a truly sustainable farm policy that is fit for purpose.”

Click here to watch the press conference by lead EP negotiators that took place after this week’s “supertrilogue”.

Background

The trilateral negotiations between the Parliament, Council and Commission on the post-2022 EU farm policy began in November 2020. The latest round of “supertrilogue” talks started on Tuesday morning.

The main sticking points that need to be resolved consist of green architecture of the future EU farm policy, including the financial envelope for eco-schemes and for other environment– and climate-friendly measures and rules for some of the so-called Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs), redistributive payment to channel more money to small and medium-sized farmers, and the social dimension of the CAP. On all these points, Parliament is more ambitious than the Council.

 

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Czech PM conflict of interest: MEPs want investigation into rule of law breaches
May 26 2021
Czech PM conflict of interest: MEPs want investigation into rule of law breaches

The Commission’s audit findings confirm the ongoing conflict of interest of Czech Prime Minister Babiš that Parliament raised in several resolutions and discharge reports.

In a draft resolution adopted on Wednesday with 26 votes in favour, none against and 4 abstentions, the Budgetary Control Committee calls on the Commission to address this conflict of interest alongside reports of the Prime Minister’s influence on Czech media and the judicial system. MEPs want any alleged rule of law breaches to be investigated and, if confirmed, they want the conditionality mechanism for the protection of the Union’s budget to be activated.

Concerns over rule of law

In their report, MEPs remark on the lack of initiative by the Czech government in addressing the conflict of interest situation and quote reported Czech government attempts in March 2020 to legalise Babiš’ conflict of interest via ad hoc legislation. MEPs are also concerned by the political pressure exerted on independent Czech media as well as the resignation of the prosecutor general, who stated pressure from the minister of justice as their reason for resigning.

The draft text voices “serious doubts on the independence of Czech authorities” in charge of distributing direct agricultural payments and asks the Commission to open an audit procedure into the management of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund.

Czech citizens should not pay for Babiš’ conflict of interest

The committee condemns the practice of withdrawing projects from European funding to finance them via the national budget when Commission or EU auditors detect irregularities. Czech citizens “should not pay for the conflict of interest of the Prime Minister”, MEPs say. They demand that Agrofert group companies repay all subsidies unlawfully received from EU or Czech national budgets, and call for the disbursement of EU funds to companies controlled by Babiš or other members of the Czech government to be stopped, until the cases of conflict of interests are fully resolved.

Babiš should not be involved in negotiations linked to the EU budget while in conflict of interest

MEPs find it unacceptable that the Czech Prime Minister has been, and is still actively, part of Council negotiations on budget and EU programmes, including the negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy, while continuing to receive EU agricultural payments via the Agrofert group companies. “No minister, member or representative of a national government shall participate in negotiations while affected by a conflict of interest”, they say.

Systemic weakness in EU reporting

The draft resolution criticises the lengthy EU audit process, and the contradictory procedures as well as financial correction procedures lasting several years. MEPs call for a revision of the rules to allow for more timely conclusions and recovery of unduly paid EU funds and for a standardised and publicly accessible format, such as an interoperable digital reporting and monitoring system to disclose the end beneficiaries of CAP disbursements.

“It is unacceptable how oligarchic structures expanded, consolidated and enriched themselves with EU and Czech national funding. MEPs cannot, and Member States should not, tolerate people with a clear conflict of interest deciding on the programming and distribution of common agricultural and cohesion funds. Billionaires should no longer have the opportunity to receive hundreds of millions in EU subsidies”

Rapporteur Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, DE)

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