Press release
After a week marked by an AGRIFISH Council, two Trilogues and a Super Trilogue, the Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes, made a positive assessment of the progress made: “We have made progress in the negotiations, we have reached a good agreement in principle and we are closer to completing this reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by the end of the half-year and thus guaranteeing the essential predictability for farmers, national administrations and all European citizens.”
Signalling that, in this Super Trilogue, the Presidency presented compromise packages for negotiation, “with the objective of enabling a debate on the three regulations”, the minister stressed that “the very wide range of points that were agreed in this trilogue reveals the commitment, cooperation and responsibility of the three institutions – the Council, Commission and European Parliament – in implementing the CAP reform agreement during this half-year. The vast majority of the proposals presented by the Portuguese Presidency, to move closer to the positions of the Parliament, were confirmed, in a very constructive spirit between the parties”.
Underlining that “a set of in-principle agreements has been reached, which will be presented to member states for consideration next week” and that the appropriate conditions have been created “to advance the debate on fundamental issues, green architecture and the social dimension”, the holder of the Agriculture portfolio highlighted the consensus reached regarding, “in particular, the new performance model, the support guidelines for direct payments, controls on conditionality, and transparency in the application of funds. In relation to the new performance model, there was agreement in principle on the biennial periodicity, as well as the tolerance levels for the purposes of its review. An understanding was also obtained on the definition of the indicators to be used for the purposes of the performance model. Concerning the wine sector, understandings were reached, in particular, on the extension of the vine planting authorization regime until 2045 and the de-alcoholisation rules. Also, to reinforce the position of farmers in the value chain, there was an agreement in principle on extending the possibility of supply management to all DOP and IGP products”.
“Today was a good day for European agriculture.” That was how the Minister Maria do Céu Antunes concluded the statements made at the press conference that took place after the Super Trilogue, which had brought together the three European institutions around the three regulations that make up the Common Agricultural Policy. She recalled that “the Presidency will remain committed and open minded and will continue working on building balanced positions between the three institutions, in order to reach the final agreement on the reform of the CAP”.
