The European Commission is abandoning its plans to reform the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to redirect funds for the agricultural sector to defense needs under pressure from opponents of such reforms, Politico reports.
Faced with the need to pay 30 billion EUR per year in loans for COVID-19 and to address other pressing issues, the EC, according to the publication, intended to combine the CAP and cohesion funds into large financial packages, modeled on the Recovery and Resilience Fund during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to this proposal, member state governments would have greater control over the spending of EU funds, which would allow them to move more quickly to solving problems in priority areas such as defense, competitiveness and climate. However, these plans have met resistance from the EU farming community.
The EC rejected such a financial restructuring plan. According to Jan Olbricht, special advisor to European Budget Commissioner Peter Serafin, the CAP “would remain a separate pillar of the budget“ of the EU for the period 2028-2034.
EUR 387 billion, or one third of the seven-year community budget, is earmarked to finance the Common Agricultural Policy. This is a system of agricultural subsidies and agricultural programs implemented within the EU.