The European Commission needs to be more ambitious in its actions.

The report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 as regards the application of direct payments to farmers in respect of the year 2013, on which the Bulgarian MEP Mariya Gabriel is a rapporteur for EPP, was discussed during the plenary session of EP in Strasbourg. The document insists that Regulation (EC) №73/2009 continues to be the basis for delivering aid to the incomes of farmers in the calendar 2013, with respect to the new support schemes to be implemented from January 1, 2014.

During the debates Mariya Gabriel pointed out the key role of the European Commission, the institution shaping the EU’s policies, making the initial suggestions and distributing the payments. “I would like to call on the EC to take into account the new member-states. I want it to be more ambitious in its actions. We need to achieve a really fair Common Agricultural Policy”, said the Bulgarian MEP.

She highlighted the importance of the member-states and of the Council, which could easily identify the needs of the farmers in the different countries because they create the national position. Mrs. Gabriel called for bigger cooperation as a crucial element of decision making.

“We in EP are the ones to recognize the interests of all, both on the horizontal and the vertical axis: from the interests of the individual farmer to those of the whole EU. May compromise, equality and fairness be leading to the same extent in all future reports related to reforms of CAP as in this one.”