Luis Planas asks the autonomous communities for a detailed analysis of the flexibilities in the CAP to avoid financial corrections

• The Strategic Plan of the CAP takes into account the great diversity of production in Spain and includes flexibilities to adapt to the different areas • The acting minister calls for responsibility to apply the flexibilities, which must not imply a deviation from the fulfillment of environmental objectives

November 6, 2023.-* The acting Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has today requested the councilors of the autonomous communities to base the flexibilities of certain requirements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on a detailed analysis of the climatic conditions of their territory, to avoid subsequent financial corrections of the European Commission (EC) affecting their farmers and ranchers.

In a letter sent this morning to all the councilors of the field, Luis Planas recalled that the Strategic Plan of the CAP 2023-27 is the result of “the great diversity” of the Spanish territory and the climate, which make up Spain’s agriculture and livestock “with diverse production models and an extraordinary wealth of crops and livestock production.”

Precisely, “with the aim of taking into account this diversity”, said the acting minister, “the Strategic Plan includes eight possible practices to qualify for aid from eco-systems, adapted to the different uses of the soil”. In addition, he pointed out that the development regulations of the plan, “provides for different flexibilities to take into account the situations that may occur in the different areas of Spain.”

Thus, he has cited as examples that the requirements of ecoregimes can vary depending on whether a pasture is wet or Mediterranean; or whether a farmland is dry or irrigated, and the possibility is established that the autonomous communities, depending on the climatic conditions, can adjust different parameters, such as the livestock load or the maximum percentage of fallow, among others.

Luis Planas stressed in the letter that “this power of the autonomous communities is necessary, in view of the great differences in climate conditions in our country, which make it difficult to make decisions at a national level that meet the needs of the entire territory.”

He has appealed to the “close and in-depth knowledge of the reality” of the sector and the territory of the heads of the autonomous communities so that the decision to apply “one or more of the flexibilities provided in the regulations” is made with “responsibility”, and to avoid that the decision they adopt “may entail in terms of financial corrections” for the autonomous community.

“When making a decision” it is “important” that it is done based on a “detailed analysis of the climatic conditions” of the autonomous community, with detailed information on whether the situation is uniform throughout the territory or affects all productions in the same way. The objective is to “clearly define the areas in which these flexibilities need to be applied”, without representing a deviation in the fulfillment of the environmental objectives and included in the Strategic Plan, which will be monitored by the European Commission.

Therefore, it has recommended that the autonomous communities use objective indicators in the reports in which they protect their decisions, which must be made available to the expenditure control procedures, particularly “important because they are Community funds”. In this regard, he recalled that the financial consequences that could arise from the undue recourse to flexibilities must be assumed by the autonomous community.

“Farmers and livestock farmers must have the necessary stability when making decisions,” said the minister, since flexibilities are “specific adjustments over the period” of application of the CAP and must be adopted with “responsibility,” according to Planas.