Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue is expected to bring a memo to Cabinet this week on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy .
he Minister will tell Government colleagues a strategic plan must be submitted this year to safeguard some €2bn of crucial farm payments in 2023 under the EU support structure.
The next version of the Common Agricultural Policy, involving nearly €11bn over the next five years, has the highest-ever level of climate ambition.
As a result, Ireland’s strategic plans has more environmental measures contained within. A nationwide farmer consultation will take place shortly, Mr McConalogue will tell colleagues.
EU Oversight
The political compromise reached on June 25 between EU Member States and the European Parliament envisages that every Member State submits a proposal for a CAP Strategic Plan by January 1 2022.
The Commission will then have 6 months to decide on the plan, save the time for necessary revisions.
In a recent update on its role, the Commission said the political agreement foresees that the assessment of the strategic plans will be done on the basis of legally binding texts, while assessing at the same time "the coherence and contribution" of the plans to the Green Deal targets.
This means that the Commission will have the possibility to ask a State to correct its strategic plan if it is not sufficiently "coherent" with the Green Deal.
The Green Deal articulates this challenge and sets out common EU ambitions, which are reflected in the few selected targets for areas that need to be tackled to truly deliver on sustainability.
The Commission has said the CAP strategic plans will play a key role in ensuring that all Member States deliver on these EU objectives together.
The Commission will ask a Member State to review its draft plan when the proposed measures do not deliver on the strategic challenges.
Those strategic challenges are identified in the so-called ‘needs assessment’ of each Member State and were also articulated in the recommendations the Commission has issued to each Member State in December 2020.
The recommendations will serve as reference points for the Commission in its assessment, but Commission will also take into account other elements, including evidence supplied by Member States, and will base the assessment on the criteria and directions set out in the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation.
