The Covid-19 pandemic has “overtaken every single piece of legislation or debate” in the European Parliament, according to MEP Mairead McGuinness.
McGuinness – the First Vice-President of the European Parliament – told AgriLand that the outbreak is being prioritised not only from a health point of view, but also from an agricultural and commodity market point of view.
“The focus now is in trying to respond to what might be coming down the tracks in terms of the market,” she explained.
“I suppose Covid-19 may influence the budget discussions in either direction, we’re not sure yet. We know there are many of us in the parliament who want a bigger budget, not just for CAP but for other policies, and we know a few member states are against that,” McGuinness explained.
She added: “Will Covid-19 change their view? Will they be more willing to have a stronger budget, given what we are going through? We don’t have the answers to that yet.”
‘Unfinished business’
McGuinness highlighted that the parliament is trying to discuss potential changes to CAP policies without fully knowing what the level of its funding through the EU budget will be, while also not having the full picture on how EU policies like the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy will effect the CAP.
“The budget issue is still unfinished business as far as we’re concerned… The biggest sticking point for us as legislators is that we don’t know the budget, so we’re discussing these potential shifts in policy without having a clear indication of what the budget for CAP will be,” she stressed.
“I think there are a few other issues which will fit into CAP from the sidelines. So we have this Farm To Fork Strategy, and its publication is delayed. It may come in April but we’re not sure,” McGuinness added.
We equally have the Biodiversity Strategy. And one of the things for us on the [the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development] and on the environment committee is to understand how these strategies will feed in to the new CAP, because that is the intention.
She continued: “The Farm to Fork Strategy drafts we have seen are quite far reaching in their impact at farm level. So a focus on increasing the area under organics, and on reducing inputs, will impact the CAP. And I don’t think we’re clear as to how that’s going to work, so that’s a bit of unfinished business as well.”
Working remotely
McGuinness explained that MEPs were all working remotely at the moment, which (although talks on CAP and the EU budget are continuing) is proving to be “less satisfactory” then face-to-face interactions between parliament members.
“We are trying to coordinate our work on CAP by emails and video conferences. There is still a lot of technical work going on between the political groups on those issues, and between the agriculture committee and the environment committee, because there would be differences of emphasis between the two committees,” the MEP explained.
Work is going on. It’s not as easy or as straightforward as when we’d be meeting normally, but it is ongoing.
“You could say it is happening, but in a different way, and it is probably less satisfactory,” McGuinness added.