Brussels –The agreement reached last night (26 October) by the Agriculture Council on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has divided the Italian delegation to the European Parliament. While Fratelli d’Italia hails the outcome as a victory for the government and farmers, the Greens have criticised the compromise, accusing it of undermining Europe’s environmental ambitions and pushing for greater renationalisation of funds.
The Fratelli d’Italia delegation has issued positive assessments. “It is an Italian political victory,” emphasises Carlo Fidanza, head of the delegation to the European Parliament and coordinator of the ECR Group on the Committee on Agriculture, who argues that the Commission’s initial proposal would have drastically reduced the CAP’s resources and autonomy. The credit, the MEP argues, goes to Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, who is said to have defended farmers’ interests and European food sovereignty.
“More resources, greater autonomy, flexibility in income support, the safeguarding of coupled aid and strengthened measures against natural disasters have yielded tangible results,” says Fidanza. The MEP is now calling for measures to offset the rise in production costs, starting with agricultural diesel, including through the use of EAFRD resources still available and amendments to the CAP’s National Strategic Plans. “The CAP is not an ATM to be emptied to fund other European priorities, but a pillar of our food sovereignty,” he concludes.
The position of Cristina Guarda, a Green/EFA MEP, is virtually the opposite. Guarda describes the agreement as “a weak proposal that can be bent to suit any national interest.” According to the MEP, the Council “is doing the bare minimum and pushing the CAP towards ever-greater renationalisation,” while the compromise would reduce common safeguards in social and environmental terms.
The criticism centres primarily on the abolition of social conditionality, which, according to the MEP, would allow CAP funds to be received without complying with minimum European standards on working conditions, health and safety for agricultural workers. On the environmental front, Guarda condemns the removal of the obligation to fund organic farming and the livestock density limit for coupled support, as well as the optional nature of support for the ecological transition.
The MEP also criticises the lack of a binding minimum quota for generational renewal. “In Parliament, we will oppose this with all our might and push for a genuine common policy, with at least 35 per cent of spending allocated to the ecological transition and certainty for organic farming,” she says, citing workers’ rights as a “clear red line.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
