CAP: MEPs vote in favour of new EU farm reform

The European Parliament has approved the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) following a lengthy legislative process.

A deal was struck back in June deal by negotiators from the European Parliament and the European Council, and mediated by the European Commission.

A debate today (Tuesday, November 23) was succeeded by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) finally exercising their vote that will see the new EU farm reform come into force in 2023 for a five-year period.

Voting was divided into three categories as follows:

The ‘strategic plans regulation’ was adopted with 452 votes in favour, 178 against and 57 abstentions;
The ‘horizontal regulation’ was adopted with 485 votes in favour, 142 against and 61 abstentions
The ‘common market organisation regulation’ was adopted with 487 in favour, 130 against and 71 abstentions.

The European Commission has yet to assess whether countries’ national CAP strategic plans are in line with biodiversity and environmental and climate laws and commitments.

Countries must submit these by the end of 2021.

Key aspects of the approved reform include:

Member states will be obliged to ensure that at least 35% of the rural development budget and at least 25% of direct payments will be dedicated to environmental and climate measures;
A minimum of 10% of direct payments will be used to support small and medium-sized farms;
At least 3% of the CAP budget will go to young farmers;
A crisis reserve with an annual budget of €450 million (in current prices) will be permanently ready to help farmers with price or market instability;
EU labour rules in agricultural sectors will be better monitored and infringements penalised;
Information about final beneficiaries of EU support will be more transparent thanks to an EU data mining tool, which member states will get access to and which helps to identify the risk of fraud occurring by cross-checking information in public databases.