There are few things that unite Agriculture Ministers more than their rejection of the idea of national co-financing of CAP Pillar 1 (P1) spending. In their first public discussion of the Commission’s November 2017 Communication of the future of the CAP post 2020 at the AGRIFISH Council meeting on 29 January, various agriculture Ministers, including France and Poland, explicitly made clear their opposition to national co-financing (as has Spain as reported here).
In early February, the Commission circulated a Communication ahead of the forthcoming European Council meeting on 23 February outlining the implications of different choices with respect to EU expenditure and financing in the forthcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). In his press conference at the end of the AGRIFISH Council meeting on 19 February, Commissioner Hogan explicitly drew attention, in a manner indicating his approval, to the fact that there was no mention of national co-financing of CAP P1 payments in this document, as had been the case in the previous Commission Reflection Paper of the Future of EU Finances.… Read the rest