Tomorrow, the Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Nikos Kougialis, will participate in the signing of the agreement for the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The new agreement will be signed by the President of the Council, Minister of Agriculture of Lithuania VigilijusJukna, assisted by the Minister of Agriculture of Cyprus and the Ministers of Agriculture of Denmark, Poland and Ireland. The signing of the CAP reform will take place in a special ceremony tomorrow, Tuesday, at 09:30, Brussels time.
The reform can be described as the most drastic in the last thirty years, and makes the CAP more flexible and efficient, promoting the development of the agricultural economy, increasing the competitiveness of agricultural products and linking agricultural policy with environmental protection.
Mr. Kougialis expressed his satisfaction for the completion of the process, noting that Cyprus has provided the necessary flexibility to support sensitive industries, as well as reducing the administrative costs of implementing the CAP for small Member States that have a large percentage of small producers. The Minister also noted that 80% of Cypriot producers will receive their support through a simplified process, which is disconnected from the cross-compliance system.
He stressed that this group will also be exempted from the mandatory new annual contribution required to finance the new Crisis Management Fund. At the same time, Mr. Kougialis continued, after hard negotiations, Cyprus was given the opportunity to use a significantly increased percentage of European co-financing during the first years of implementation of the rural development program. In conclusion, he thanked all those who worked for the last two years to achieve the goals of Cyprus.