external convergence

One of the many issues that will need to be resolved when Heads of State and Government get around to once again considering the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 is what position to take on the external convergence of CAP direct payments.

The Commission has proposed a further narrowing of the differences in the average value of direct payments per hectare between Member States in the post-2020 CAP framework. For a number of countries from Central and Eastern Europe nothing less than full equality by the end of the MFF period will be acceptable. There is equally strong push-back from another group of Member States that argue there should be no further reductions in the CAP joint pillar allocations for the purpose of redistribution among Member States.

The call for the harmonisation of payments per hectare across Member States (external convergence) began in the run-up to the 2013 CAP reform. The phasing-in of direct payments following the enlargement to include 10 Central and Eastern European countries in 2004 was completed for these countries in 2013, yet significant differences in average payment levels per hectare persisted.… Read the rest

As I discussed in this post, the Finnish Presidency has been tasked with presenting a first draft of the MFF ‘negotiating box’ with numbers prior to the next European Council meeting 12-13 December 2019. This will be no mean feat given the wide differences of opinion between the ‘frugal five’ Member States – Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden – that want overall a smaller budget than what the Commission has proposed, and other Member States that want to reverse some of the Commission’s cuts in cohesion and agricultural spending (Politico’s Lily Bayer goes through the different alliances in this article published today).

The agricultural Ministers of seventeen Member States circulated a statement at the last AGRIFISH Council in October 2019 calling for the CAP budget to be maintained at its current level in nominal terms. Austria manages to be both a member of the ‘frugal five’ in the General Council while at the same time calling for increased CAP spending in the AGRIFISH Council, which suggests statements of agriculture ministers may be meant more for domestic consumption rather than reflecting the views of their governments.… Read the rest

Tag: external convergence

External convergence debate continues to simmer

What explains the differential cuts in CAP P1 and P2 spending in the Commission’s MFF proposal?