The European Parliament, the EU Council of Ministers and the European Commission reached a political agreement last Tuesday, 24th of September 2013, on the few issues on CAP reform that remained outstanding from the 26th of June. These issues, related to direct payments and rural development, are the following:
Direct payments:
- Capping and degressivity: these will finely remain extremely limited with degressivity of 5% of the payments above 150 000€ of subsidies (salaries deducted) and capping remaining voluntary. This point was very important in Euromontana’s position and such a failure represents for sure a big disappointment.
- External convergence: initial proposals from the Commission were finally retained, with a requirement to close on third of the gap between current level of average payment and 90% of EU average by 2020. A minimum level of average payment at the end of the period has also been defined.
- Transferring funds between pillars: the possibility to transfer 15 % of the funds between the 1st and the 2nd pillar, both ways, has finally been agreed. Transfer from first pillar to second pillar means that funds can be used without co-financing, which is good. However, the possibility to transfer from second to first pillar up to 15%, and even 25% in the countries with the smallest levels of direct payments represents a huge risk for rural development funding.
Rural Development:
- National allocations have been decided.
- Co-funding rates: they will vary from 85% at most down to 53% in the most developed regions, with possibilities to modulate for some areas and for some measures, such as environment and climate change.
More information on the decisions can be read from here.
