The Presidency convened an extraordinary session of the SCA in order to comply
with delegations' request to take all possible steps to ensure that the changes to the
CAP basic acts agreed at the trilogue on 12 October can apply from 1 January 2018.
After discussions within the Council and with the European Parliament and the
Commission, the Presidency announced that it had concluded that there could be a
need for splitting the Omnibus proposal to make the agricultural provisions a
freestanding proposal.
Therefore, the Presidency asked the delegates' confirmation of their approval of the
overall compromise package, and requested their agreement in principle to authorize
the sending of the offer letter by the SCA Chair to the COMAGRI Chair to secure a
first-reading agreement (subject to the approval of the Permanent representatives
committee, Part II, in the following weeks).
The Presidency specified that the text to be annexed to the offer letter appears in
document 13819/17 and that the amendments to the CAP basic acts are identical to
the revised consolidated texts circulated on 24 October, with subsequent changes
being a question of form and technical drafting, not substance.
In its reaction, the Commission announced it would not act out of its own initiative,
but only respond to a clear wish expressed by the legislators to have agricultural part
of the proposal enter into force on 01/01/2018. The Commission also requested all
three institutions to work in parallel and announced it would endeavour to come to a
position as soon as possible as requested by the Presidency.
In the ensuing debate, almost all MS (
IE, FR, SI, DE, SE, CZ, HR, FI, AT, HU,
PL, LU, LV, RO, IT, LT, BG, ES, PT, CY, SK, MT) supported explicitly the
Presidency’s intention to obtain from CORPER II the agreement on splitting the
agricultural part from the other Omnibus components with a view to adopting it as a
self-standing regulation that could enter into force on 1 January 2018. FR specified
their agreement relates to the relevant text as it stands now (confirmed by the
Presidency). The Presidency also confirmed the Commission explanations on control
of ploughing made during the 1559th meeting of the Special Committee on
Agriculture (SCA) held in Brussels on 16th October 2017 still stand today and have
been recorded as annex to the official Summary Record of the meeting.
Only
DK,
NL, BE and
SE did not yet express unambiguous views. While
DK approves the final text, it reserves its position regarding the splitting option, as this is
a COREPER II prerogative.
NL announced it would abstain during the vote and
leave the splitting option to the COREPER II. Also
BE confirmed it would abstain
during the vote but announced it would support the split.
SE announced it supported
the Presidency approach but did not want to constitute a precedent. The latter was
confirmed by the Presidency.
UK announced it has no objection in principle but reserved its final position until it
was able to discuss the implementation of the new rules (and in particular the
greening provisions) with the Commission services.
In its conclusion the Presidency noted that:
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a) no MS was opposed to the agreement on the compromise package which received
support at the SCA meeting of 16 October 2017 in the form of the free-standing
regulation set out in document 13819/17;
b) the SCA confirmed its support for the next steps proposed, namely that, subject to
the approval of the split by the Permanent Representatives Committee (Part II), the
SCA Chair will write to the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural
Development of the EP, informing him that, should the EP adopt its position at first
reading, in accordance with Article 294(3) TFEU, in the form set out in that
document (which would be annexed to the letter), and subject to revision by the legal
linguists of both institutions, the Council would, in accordance with Article 294(4)
TFEU, approve the EP's position and the act would be adopted in the wording which
corresponds to the EP's position.
The Presidency also noted that the Commission is not ready yet to take a position and
appealed for the Commission to ensure a position ahead of the Coreper II meeting,
otherwise Art 293 TFEU would apply (unanimity within Council). Finally the
Presidency requested the delegations to brief their ambassadors thoroughly ahead of
the COREPER II meeting.
4.
Organisation of future work
The Presidency reminded the Member States’ agricultural attachés of its invitation to
visit to the EIB in Luxembourg on 23/11 and requested to let them know by 12/11 if they
would like to participate.
Reporting:
, DG AGRI, Unit I.5 Tel.:
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