Statements on Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 December 2021 establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1305/2013 and (EU) No 1307/2013 (1)

(2021/C 488/01)

Statement by the Council on the simplification of the CAP

The New Delivery Model (NDM) should allow the replacement of compliance-based clearance of expenditure by a performance-based clearance of expenditure, leaving the conception of control and sanction systems at national level, which is a matter of subsidiarity left to the Member States.

The Council requests that the provisions to be issued by the Commission in the future guidelines take full account of the rationale of the New Delivery Model. They should not lead to the reintroduction of compliance requirements that go beyond the scope defined by Article 37 of the horizontal regulation.

In particular, they should provide a better framework for the procedure to determine the amounts to be excluded from EU financing, in line with the current programming, taking into account the nature of the infringement in order to ensure that they are proportionate to the level of financial damage caused to the EU, particularly for the impacts of conditionality-related anomalies. In this regard, we would urge that the definition of serious deficiencies in the governance systems be further clarified. A deficiency can be detected when assessing the functioning of the governance bodies and the basic Union requirements including the reporting systems. This can be done by a review of the internal control system, including compliance testing. Financial corrections should be limited to scenarios where serious systematic deficiencies in the governance systems are detected. The amount to be excluded should be related to the amount unduly spent or to the administrative sanctions that would have been applied. The use of flat rate corrections should be limited to cases where it is impossible to calculate the exact amount unduly spent.

Furthermore, the guidelines will have to provide that the verifications expected from the certification bodies are limited, as regards the evaluation of the governance systems, to the management of the Union rules by these systems without extending it to the conditions of eligibility of individual beneficiaries laid down in the CAP Strategic Plans.

The Council asks the Commission to ensure, in accordance with the announced objectives, that the new delivery model does not lead to a significant increase of the burden for the Member States, but rather to an overall simplification, while guaranteeing the protection of the financial interests of the Union, in particular through the approval procedure of the CAP Strategic Plans and the implementation of Article 59 of the horizontal regulation. The Council also asks the Commission not to cancel the administrative gains from the introduction of the new Delivery Model by demanding additional reporting for monitoring and evaluation.

Joint statement by the European Parliament and the Council on the social dimension of the common agricultural policy

The European Parliament and the Council invite the Commission to monitor, via a study to be carried out two years after the first two years of application of social conditionality by all Member States, the impact of the mechanism on workers conditions and the functioning of the system of penalties and, where appropriate, to come forward with proposals to enhance the social dimension of the CAP.

By 2025, the Commission will assess the feasibility of including, in Annex XX, Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2) on free movement of workers and, where appropriate, come forward with proposals to that effect.

Commission statement on the possibility for Belgium to submit two CAP Strategic Plans

In view of the provisions of Article 104 of the CAP Strategic Plan Regulation agreed by the co-legislators and taking into account Belgium’s particular constitutional framework, the Commission confirms that it will accept that Belgium submits a CAP Strategic Plan for each of its relevant federated entities. This does not affect or alter Belgium’s legal obligations under the CAP Strategic Plan Regulation.

European Parliament statement on the role of the European Council as regards legislative elements of the common agricultural policy

The European Parliament deplores the fact that the European Council took decisions, in its conclusions of 21 July 2020, on legislative elements of the common agricultural policy that should have been decided under the ordinary legislative procedure in accordance with the Treaties. The European Parliament considers those unilateral pre-emptive decisions to be unacceptable and that they impinge on the rights of the European Parliament as a co-legislator acting on an equal footing with the Council.

The European Parliament deplores the fact that the Council was therefore unwilling to enter into meaningful negotiations with the European Parliament concerning those elements on the grounds that they had already been decided by the European Council.

In particular, the European Parliament notes that the Council did not enter into meaningful negotiations on the capping and degressivity provisions laid down in Article 17 and the flexibility between direct payments allocations and EAFRD allocations laid down in Article 96, and considers the outcome of negotiations on those Articles to be unsatisfactory.

The European Parliament deeply regrets the Council’s approach and considers that it undermines the proper functioning of the ordinary legislative procedure. The European Parliament therefore insists that this should not be repeated in any future negotiations in the context of the ordinary legislative procedure.

(1)  OJ L 435, 6.12.2021, p. 1.

(2)  Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on freedom of movement for workers within the Union (OJ L 141, 27.5.2011, p. 1).