More than a thousand amendments to the Commission's proposal had been tabled by MEPs, reflecting the diversity in the situations facing farmers in the EU and the importance attached by Members to getting the right approach to the last major changes to be made to the CAP until the next negotiations on the EU's financing system.
A series of compromise amendments had been negotiated between the rapporteur and the political groups ahead of the vote, dealing with the main points of the Commission's package of reform proposals. They were all adopted with a large majority, with the exception of the one on the milk sector, which was rejected in favour of a series of other amendments.
Smaller transfers to national rural development programmes
The plan to reduce further and faster direct support to farmers in order to strengthen Member States' rural development programmes ("modulation") was one of the most hotly debated among MEPs. The compromise they reached asks that the current 5 per cent rate of modulation for farmers receiving more that €5 000 in EU subsidy should only be increased to 7 per cent by 2013, rather tan the 13 per cent proposed by the Commission, with a higher rate for farm businesses which receive over €100 000, but not nearly as much as proposed by the Commission (1 percentage point extra modulation between €100 000 and €199 999 rather than 3 points, 2 points between €200 000 and €299 999 rather than 6, and 3 percentage points beyond €300 000 rather than 9).
Other amendments adopted by MEPs call for the link between support and production to be kept for livestock farmers in the current context and for small producers (including fodder, protein and flax production).
Milk: a review in 2010
The proposal to raise Member States' milk quotas by 1 per cent to pave the way for their abolition in 2015 was also the subject of controversy within the committee, given the difficult situation faced by dairy farmers in several Member States, where sale prices are already very low, while in other Member States farmers want to increase production to take advantage of new opportunities on the world markets.
While the rapporteur's compromise proposal on this sector was rejected, the individual amendments adopted by the committee amount to a similar middle way. MEPs favour an increase in quotas by 1 per cent in 2009 and 2010, but they ask the Commission to review the situation in 2010 before making proposals for later years. MEPs also want to allow Member States temporarily to increase their quotas if the quotas of other Member States are under-used. They call for the creation of a milk fund to help restructuring of the sector.
Support for hard-hit sectors, insurance and market intervention
Other compromises adopted by MEPS aim to allow Member States to use up to 15 per cent of their community funding envelope to support hard-hit sectors such as livestock and dairy farming and to contribute to insurance and mutual schemes (so-called Article 68 support), to widen insurance coverage, notably for all type of climate damage and for major losses caused by animal or plant disease, and to increase Community cofinancing of these insurance schemes and mutual funds.
Finally, MEPs adopted a series of amendment calling for the retention of market intervention or management instruments in the grain, meat and dairy sectors.
