Common Agricultural Policy and revision of the 2014-2020 MFF

The EU's 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework provides medium-term expenditure predictability in support of investment in Europe's priorities.

The European Commission presented its mid-term review/revision of the multiannual EU budget (2014-2020) on 14 September 2016 in Strasbourg. Without increasing spending limits, the package as presented is intended to free up an additional €6.3 billion in financing by 2020. These resources will be used mainly to foster job creation, investment and economic growth and to address the migration crisis.

In this context, the Commission presented a legal proposal (omnibus regulation) that contains changes to the basic EU Financial Regulation and to the main EU funding regulations. The omnibus proposal touches, inter alia, on all four of the basic regulations governing the Common Agriculture Policy. These cover Direct Payments, Rural Development, Common Market Organisation and the ‘Horizontal’ Regulation, covering issues such as funding and controls. The changes that are proposed aim at fine-tuning some elements of the current CAP, as described in this briefing, and making life easier for both farmers and national authorities.

Looking ahead, the proposed revision of the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Frame-work will prepare the ground for a subsequent MFF proposal in support of EU priorities for the post-2020 period. This could be presented by the end of 2017. With the omnibus regulation proposal, it appears unlikely that a major restructuring of the basic architecture of the CAP will take place in the current programming period. More substantial legal proposals for a post-2020 CAP could be presented in 2018, in line with the post-2020 MFF communication. Such a scenario would enable the European Parliament, as co-legislator, to negotiate the implications of the current CAP revision, and a more substantial post-2020 reform for the CAP in parallel.

Author: Francesco Tropea

ESO: Background information: 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF): Mid-term revision http://www.europeansources.info/record/2014-2020-multiannual-financial-framework-mff-mid-term-revision/

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