Brussels, 18 May 2022
To preserve food security in light of the war in Ukraine, the Commission should examine possible temporary derogations from the Common Agricultural Policy.
In a letter addressed on Wednesday, 18 May to Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, the Chair of the EP’s Agriculture Committee Norbert Lins (EPP, DE) and the majority of political groups in the Committee call on the European Commission to assess the possibility of derogations from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the light of the Russian war against Ukraine.
The derogations, which should be adopted for a limited period of time, “could be a way to counter global shortages in food supply and to make a contribution to food security”, reads the letter.
The Commission should therefore assess, “as a first step and in view of the current situation”, a possibility of the derogations or “other measures to that effect”, including in the framework of Article 148 of the so called Strategic Plans Regulation, the Agriculture Committee Chair suggests.
Article 148 of the Strategic Plans Regulation defines that “in order to resolve specific problems, the Commission shall adopt implementing acts which are both necessary and justifiable in an emergency.” These implementing acts may derogate from provisions of the Strategic Plans Regulation “to the extent and for such a period as is strictly necessary”.
Mr Lins concludes by stressing that “the European Parliament, as co-legislator, has to be involved in all ongoing discussions between the European Council and the European Commission in this regard”.
Background
The letter refers to a meeting of the G7 ministers of agriculture on 13 – 14 May, during which derogations from the CAP were discussed in the margins.
The Agricutlure Committee has debated the impact of the war in Ukraine on food security and food markets on several occasion since the beginning of the war. You can re-watch the last two exchanges with the Commission here and with FAO’s Chief Economist, Mr Máximo Torero, and Members of the Ukrainian Parliament here.
On 24 March, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the need for an urgent EU action plan to ensure food security in and outside the EU following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where MEPs called for the possibility to use fallow land the production of protein crops in 2022 and for allowing, during this year, “for temporary and short-term flexibilities with conditionalities and derogations to be considered”.