Brussels, June 28, (dpa/GNA) – The EU ministers for agriculture could endorse a new set of rules for agriculture reforms on Monday after negotiators for the European Parliament and EU countries struck a political deal last week.
Several agriculture ministers voiced their satisfaction with the deal before heading into their two-day talks on Monday. The agreement sets out rules on how to spend 270 billion euros (322 billion dollars) under the bloc’s common agriculture policy (CAP).
It still needs to be formally adopted by the EU countries and parliament.
“Spain supports the agreement reached last Friday,” Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said.
“We think that a balance between the ambition of the profitability of our farmers and the green architecture has been reached,” he said.
The new deal covers the years 2023 until 2027 and foresees that 25 per cent of direct payments to farmers should be spent on eco-schemes – voluntary practices that should make farming more environmentally friendly – although exceptions apply.
Environmentalists, however, have warned that the new rules hardly change unsustainable farming practice across the bloc and fall short of protecting the environment.
The total budget – which also includes an already agreed two-year transition period in 2021 and 2022 – comes in at 387 billion euros.
Germany’s Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner also voiced support for the new rules.
“We are at the finishing line,” she said before the meeting.
GNA