Slovakia and Romania express concerns and ask to eliminate inequalities in the CAP
BRUSSELS, June 24 () –
This Monday, a large majority of Member States supported the conclusions on the future of agriculture, a document that recognizes the challenges that the sector must face in the medium and long term and that proposes concrete actions to address challenges such as climate change. , geopolitical tensions or the profitability of the activity, which will serve as a roadmap for the policies of the next European Commission in this area.
In this sense, the conclusions invite the Community Executive to continue monitoring the sources of complexity of the community regulations and ask to tackle the bureaucratic burden that continues to affect farmers.
The Belgian Minister responsible for Agriculture, David Clarinval, in his capacity as Belgian Presidency of the Council, has explained that it is a “balanced” text that invites the Member States to reflect on the requests of the primary sector.
Clarinval has pointed out that the conclusions have achieved “practically the consensus” of the ministers, since 25 of the 27 delegations have supported them, with the only exception of Romania and Slovakia, which have expressed concerns about their difficulties in maintaining the ‘external convergence’. ‘, a mechanism of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that progressively adjusts income aid payments per hectare in each country, either upwards or downwards, to bring them closer to the EU average level.
“The Romanian representation has rejected the conclusions while the Slovak representation has also expressed, although to a lesser extent, its point of view on the matter,” Clarinval specified, although both countries have requested that this mechanism be eliminated to guarantee “identical” aid. at the community level to avoid inequalities.
According to the Belgian minister, this has been the only point raised to justify the rejection of the text, since 25 member states have supported it, which has forced its approval as conclusions of the Belgian presidency instead of a Council agreement, lowering its political significance due to lack of unanimity. However, Clarinval has highlighted that “it is a text with great weight that has practically gathered consensus.”
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