The meeting took place on the initiative of the Portuguese presidency due to the fact that during the recent May meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels and the parallel so-called super trilogue no compromise on reforming the Common Agricultural Policy was reached. Multiple key issues have not been agreed upon yet.

The purpose of today’s meeting was to present Polish priorities concerning the CAP reform, identify main divergences with respect to approaching certain solutions and align the positions to allow the presidency to finalise the work on CAP reform this June.

The talks had a technical nature, since at the present, final stage of negotiations only certain very detailed aspects of the future CAP remain to be fine-tuned.

Minister Grzegorz Puda expressed his support for the Presidency in its desire to achieve a compromise. Nevertheless, he stressed that Poland is particularly interested in instruments that are of major importance for supporting family farms and maintaining the diversity of EU agricultural production, agricultural jobs and sustainable production systems. Accordingly, Poland would not accept solutions which are not favourable for Polish farmers, hinder the implementation of the reformed CAP or result in extra administrative burdens.

“We must guarantee more flexibility to Member States, which will help contain the risk that funds remain unused or are lost. Adding provisions that will result in unequal treatment of Member States is likewise not justified,” said Minister Puda while wrapping up the meeting.