Voorzitter Landbouwraad krijgt nieuw mandaat voor onderhandelingen met Europees Parlement over GLB (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Litouws voorzitterschap Europese Unie 2e helft 2013 i, gepubliceerd op maandag 23 september 2013.

During the Agriculture Council on September 23 the Lithuanian Presidency i has received clear guidance from Member States on a possible alignment of positions with the European Parliament and renewed negotiating Council mandate in order to finalize the deal on the CAP reform package. Though the mandate for negotiations remains very limited, the Council is determined to complete the negotiations with the Parliament.

During the Council meeting Minister of Agriculture Prof. Vigilijus Jukna presented the state of play in negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform package with the main focus on the outstanding multiannual financial framework 2014-2020 related issues. The Minister presented the results of the trilogue with the European Parliament held on September 17.

“Member States Ministers agreed not to reopen political discussions on elements of the CAP reform but gave some clear guidance for further negotiations on such important open issues like degressivity of direct payments, flexibility on transferring funds between pillars, co-financing rates and approval procedure of rural development envelopes per member states. Tomorrow we’ll have a trilogue with the European Parliament, in which we hope to approximate our positions and reach an agreement on the outstanding issues before the final voting in COMAGRI committee”, noted Minister V. Jukna.

Both institutions are committed to reach the agreement on CAP which will ensure timely entry of the reformed CAP into force. Accordingly, it‘s important to reach an agreement on proposal on the necessary transitional CAP rules on certain aspects of the CAP reform, mainly related to the system of direct payments and rural development. “It’s our common responsibility to ensure clear rules and financial guarantees to EU farmers and avoid any unnecessary difficulties”, pointed out Minister V. Jukna.

The Lithuanian Minister shared the short-term CAP related prospects: “We hope to settle all outstanding multiannual financial framework related issues with the European Parliament during September. By the end of this year we are planning to finalize all the work related to the Common Agricultural Policy reform package.”