Future EU rural policy: eur 365 billion
In early June, the European Commission presented budget proposals FOR THE EU Common Agricultural Policy for 2021-2027, with a total of eur 365 billion.
The European Commission (EC) Communication states that with the budget of eur 365 billion, THE EC proposals for the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) ensure that it will be suitable for future needs, continue to provide support to farmers and rural communities, ensure that THE development of EU agriculture is sustainable and reflect THE EU's environmental and climate objectives. THE CAP proposals published in early June provide for greater flexibility and accountability for Member States, choosing how and where to invest in their funding to achieve the ambitious targets set at EU level towards a smart, sustainable, sustainable and competitive agricultural sector while ensuring fair and more targeted support for farmers' income.
Every Latvian farmer and rural operator shall have the opportunity to express their views on THE EC offer by 10 July, filling out the questionnaire drawn up by the National Rural Network Secretariat in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, which contains 21 questions with options. The survey can be found on the homepages of the Ministry of Agriculture and LLCC: https://www.visidati.lv/aptauja/1359502604/1/.
Your opinion is important for agricultural policy makers, so that discussions with EU institutions and organisations can help to achieve acceptable CAP conditions and future financing arrangements for Latvia.
Discussions on the new CAP conditions proposed BY THE EC in EU Member States and institutions will continue until mid-year.
What are the main EC proposals for future EU agriculture and the rural environment?
1. New working methods. Thanks to greater flexibility as regards the use of THE CAP funding allocated to them, Member States will be able to develop tailor-made programmes to respond most effectively to the wider needs of farmers and rural communities through better results. In order to ensure that the priorities and measures of the Member States are financed, they will also be able to move up to 15% from THE CAP allocation between direct payments and rural development. A level playing field for Member States will be ensured through strategic plans for the whole period, which will determine how each Member State intends to achieve nine EU-wide economic, environmental and social objectives with direct payments and rural development funding. In order to ensure consistency with EU-wide objectives and the protection of the single market, each plan will be approved by the Commission and will monitor the contribution of each country and progress towards the objectives set.
2. Fairer conditions thanks to more targeted support. Direct payments will still be an important part of this policy, ensuring the stability and predictability of farmers. Priority is given to support for small and medium-sized agricultural holdings that represent most of THE EU's agricultural sector and aid to young farmers. THE EC remains committed to a fairer distribution of direct payments through external convergence.
In addition, from €60 000, direct payments per hectare will be reduced, but the maximum possible amount of direct payments per holding will not exceed €100 000. Labour costs will be fully respected. With this proposal, THE EC hopes to ensure a fairer distribution of payments so that small and medium-sized agricultural holdings can receive more aid per hectare.
At least 2% of their direct payments should be allocated to support for young farmers to start operations. It will be complemented by financial support under rural development for various measures facilitating access to land.
The new CAP makes it more difficult to align the level of direct payments between Member States: in countries where the payment per hectare is below 90% of THE EU average, covering half of the amount missing to 90%.
3. Higher environmental and climate targets. THE EC's proposed common objectives will address the challenges of climate change, natural resources, biodiversity, habitats and landscapes. Farmers' income support is already linked to the implementation of environmental and climate-friendly agricultural practices and, under the new CAP, farmers will be required to pursue more ambitious objectives through compulsory and incentive-based measures:
* direct payments will depend on higher environmental and climate requirements;
* each Member State will have to offer ecoschemes to help farmers implement more than mere minimum requirements and these schemes will be financed by part of the national direct payments allocation;
* at least 30% of each rural development country allocation will be devoted to environmental and climate measures;
* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* In addition to the possibility of moving 15% between pillars, Member States will also be able to move additional 15% from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 expenditure on climate and environmental measures (without national co-financing).
4. Greater use of knowledge and innovation. The modernised CAP will use all the latest technologies and innovation, thus helping both farmers and national administrations, in particular with the following measures:
* for research and innovation projects in the field of food, agriculture, rural development and bioeconomy, a budget of eur 10 billion is allocated from THE EU research programme Horizon 2020;
* Member States are encouraged to control and monitor the use of large data and new technologies (e.g. satellite data to verify the size of farm holdings for direct payment claims), thus significantly reducing the need for on-the-spot controls;
* The digitisation of rural life is accelerated, for example by extending access to broadband services in rural areas, thereby improving the quality of life in these regions and promoting the competitiveness of European agricultural production.
Follow-up
In order to ensure that EU funds deliver tangible results as soon as possible and that farmers are given the necessary information to carry out business activities and make investment decisions, it is important to reach a swift agreement on the overall EU long-term budget and sectoral proposals.
The delays at the beginning of the current (2014-2020) budget period could mean that farmers and national administrations will not be able to benefit from cutting red tape, more flexibility for more efficient results to be achieved by the new CAP. Any delay in future budget approval will also hamper thousands of potential new projects across THE EU aimed at supporting farmers and rural communities, as well as measures to improve environmental protection and to attract young farmers.
The agreement on the next long-term budget in 2019 would ensure a smooth transition from the current long-term budget (2014-2020) to new and financing predictability and continuity, which is in the interest of the general public.
Following the EU's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, the information was prepared by: Iveta Thomas, THE LLCC is supplied by the driver
The European Commission (EC) Communication states that with the budget of eur 365 billion, THE EC proposals for the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) ensure that it will be suitable for future needs, continue to provide support to farmers and rural communities, ensure that THE development of EU agriculture is sustainable and reflect THE EU's environmental and climate objectives. THE CAP proposals published in early June provide for greater flexibility and accountability for Member States, choosing how and where to invest in their funding to achieve the ambitious targets set at EU level towards a smart, sustainable, sustainable and competitive agricultural sector while ensuring fair and more targeted support for farmers' income.
Every Latvian farmer and rural operator shall have the opportunity to express their views on THE EC offer by 10 July, filling out the questionnaire drawn up by the National Rural Network Secretariat in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, which contains 21 questions with options. The survey can be found on the homepages of the Ministry of Agriculture and LLCC: https://www.visidati.lv/aptauja/1359502604/1/.
Your opinion is important for agricultural policy makers, so that discussions with EU institutions and organisations can help to achieve acceptable CAP conditions and future financing arrangements for Latvia.
Discussions on the new CAP conditions proposed BY THE EC in EU Member States and institutions will continue until mid-year.
What are the main EC proposals for future EU agriculture and the rural environment?
1. New working methods. Thanks to greater flexibility as regards the use of THE CAP funding allocated to them, Member States will be able to develop tailor-made programmes to respond most effectively to the wider needs of farmers and rural communities through better results. In order to ensure that the priorities and measures of the Member States are financed, they will also be able to move up to 15% from THE CAP allocation between direct payments and rural development. A level playing field for Member States will be ensured through strategic plans for the whole period, which will determine how each Member State intends to achieve nine EU-wide economic, environmental and social objectives with direct payments and rural development funding. In order to ensure consistency with EU-wide objectives and the protection of the single market, each plan will be approved by the Commission and will monitor the contribution of each country and progress towards the objectives set.
2. Fairer conditions thanks to more targeted support. Direct payments will still be an important part of this policy, ensuring the stability and predictability of farmers. Priority is given to support for small and medium-sized agricultural holdings that represent most of THE EU's agricultural sector and aid to young farmers. THE EC remains committed to a fairer distribution of direct payments through external convergence.
In addition, from €60 000, direct payments per hectare will be reduced, but the maximum possible amount of direct payments per holding will not exceed €100 000. Labour costs will be fully respected. With this proposal, THE EC hopes to ensure a fairer distribution of payments so that small and medium-sized agricultural holdings can receive more aid per hectare.
At least 2% of their direct payments should be allocated to support for young farmers to start operations. It will be complemented by financial support under rural development for various measures facilitating access to land.
The new CAP makes it more difficult to align the level of direct payments between Member States: in countries where the payment per hectare is below 90% of THE EU average, covering half of the amount missing to 90%.
3. Higher environmental and climate targets. THE EC's proposed common objectives will address the challenges of climate change, natural resources, biodiversity, habitats and landscapes. Farmers' income support is already linked to the implementation of environmental and climate-friendly agricultural practices and, under the new CAP, farmers will be required to pursue more ambitious objectives through compulsory and incentive-based measures:
* direct payments will depend on higher environmental and climate requirements;
* each Member State will have to offer ecoschemes to help farmers implement more than mere minimum requirements and these schemes will be financed by part of the national direct payments allocation;
* at least 30% of each rural development country allocation will be devoted to environmental and climate measures;
* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* In addition to the possibility of moving 15% between pillars, Member States will also be able to move additional 15% from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 expenditure on climate and environmental measures (without national co-financing).
4. Greater use of knowledge and innovation. The modernised CAP will use all the latest technologies and innovation, thus helping both farmers and national administrations, in particular with the following measures:
* for research and innovation projects in the field of food, agriculture, rural development and bioeconomy, a budget of eur 10 billion is allocated from THE EU research programme Horizon 2020;
* Member States are encouraged to control and monitor the use of large data and new technologies (e.g. satellite data to verify the size of farm holdings for direct payment claims), thus significantly reducing the need for on-the-spot controls;
* The digitisation of rural life is accelerated, for example by extending access to broadband services in rural areas, thereby improving the quality of life in these regions and promoting the competitiveness of European agricultural production.
Follow-up
In order to ensure that EU funds deliver tangible results as soon as possible and that farmers are given the necessary information to carry out business activities and make investment decisions, it is important to reach a swift agreement on the overall EU long-term budget and sectoral proposals.
The delays at the beginning of the current (2014-2020) budget period could mean that farmers and national administrations will not be able to benefit from cutting red tape, more flexibility for more efficient results to be achieved by the new CAP. Any delay in future budget approval will also hamper thousands of potential new projects across THE EU aimed at supporting farmers and rural communities, as well as measures to improve environmental protection and to attract young farmers.
The agreement on the next long-term budget in 2019 would ensure a smooth transition from the current long-term budget (2014-2020) to new and financing predictability and continuity, which is in the interest of the general public.
Following the EU's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, the information was prepared by: Iveta Thomas, THE LLCC is supplied by the driver