Agriculture, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Markets and Companies

"The idea proposed in CAP's notice to give greater responsibility to member states is welcome. Amendments must carry a clear objective, that is to make the policy simpler," Tamm said in a press release.

"We support the schedule compiled by Bulgaria for handling CAP topics. The European Commission is compiling the draft of a new CAP regulation, hopefully the debate of the ministers will issue a clear message to the commissioner on what the member states expect from the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. In a situation, where the budget resources are more and more limited, we must indicate why the use of public money in agriculture and rural development is justified," Tamm said.

As follow-up action of the notice, the European Commission will publish a broad-based impact assessment and a legislative proposal of a new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) can be expected in May, which will stipulate the budget of the next budget period, including the CAP budget.

In addition, the main points to be handled at the meeting include the situation on the agricultural products market and agricultural trade. Other points to be discussed include the situation of the sugar market and the pork market, while the European Commission and the French delegation will give an overview of the conference held in Paris in December, the main topic of which was the dangerous plant bacteria Xylella fastidiosa.

The first unofficial discussions of the next period's CAP were launched in May 2016 at an informal meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council held in the framework of the Dutch EU presidency. The official discussions of the next budget period were launched with a public consultation, which started on Feb. 2, 2017 and lasted 12 weeks.

The European Commission in July 2017 held a high-level conference of interest groups to sum up the results of the consultation. In addition, the informal meeting of ministers focused on risk management and held in Tallinn in September gave a significant input from the Council for issues concerning the future of CAP. Topics concerning the future of CAP were also discussed at a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in October. The council's meeting in December introduced the European Commission's notice to the member states and the first exchange of opinions concerning the notice took place.

The meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on Monday will be attended by deputy secretary general for agricultural and rural life policies Marko Gorban, deputy secretary general for fisheries policy and foreign affairs Olavi Petron, and head of the ministry's European Union affairs department Madis Partel.