My weekly update - Main contents

I have listened to the concerns raised by farmers and national administrations and am thus willing to show some flexibility, so have asked my services to look at pushing back the deadline by a few weeks.

Happy St Patrick's Day to you all! Last week was a very full and busy week, starting in Ireland, followed by attendance at the Strasbourg plenary session of the European Parliament and from there my first official visit to Romania.

In Strasbourg, I had the chance to take part in an event on Milk Production in Mountainous Regions, jointly hosted by MEPs Michel Dantin, Herbert Dorfmann and Elizabeth Kostinger. During the discussion I outlined the measures in the new CAP, which can help mitigate the effects on farmers in mountainous regions in the new post milk quota environment, including voluntary coupled support and promotion measures. Exchanging views with the public representatives of 500 million EU citizens affords me to the opportunity to benefit from their experience gained through their individual interaction with their own constituents.

On Wednesday, the second of my two in Strasbourg, I was glad to meet with the EPP Group MEPs on Comagri to receive their submission on simplification, as well as meeting with ECR Group MEPs earlier that morning, chaired by Ian Duncan MEP. Both meetings were part of my regular interaction with political groups in the European Parliament.

Following a stopover in Brussels on Wednesday evening including some preparatory work with my services, I travelled to Bucharest on Thursday. Alongside my colleague Corina Cretu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, I was honoured to be received by the Romanian Minister for Agriculture, Daniel Constantin. On Thursday afternoon we visited Suinprod Radic, dry fodder processing unit and pig farm in Arges County, co-financed by the EU Rural Development Programme. This site is the perfect example of the second pillar of CAP supporting local development in rural communities and the economic opportunities for agriculture within the EU member states. I am very optimistic that EU funding opportunities can help rural areas, not just in Romania, but also in other EU Member States, harness their potential. On Thursday evening I had a very useful engagement over dinner with EU Heads of Missions.

On Friday morning I met with Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta to update him on the Romanian Rural Development Programme and the general €20bn CAP package for Romania to 2020. The new €8bn Romanian RDP up to 2020 is envisaged to benefit the lives of 2.5 million people in rural areas through investments in rural infrastructure, rural enterprises and rural communities. It should create up to 30,000 jobs through measures both on farm and beyond the farm gate to improve the competitiveness of the Romanian rural economy.

I continued my visit to the Palace of Parliament, where I was honoured to be hosted by the joint Senate and Chamber of Deputies committees on Agriculture and EU Affairs. I have mentioned before, as a former local and national parliamentarian, I greatly value direct interaction and feedback from national parliamentarians, and indeed it is a priority of the Juncker Commission. So whenever I can, I enjoy meeting with National Parliaments. The Romanian Senators and Deputies explained the issues on the ground affecting the development of the agriculture sector in Romania and also highlighted the situation in neighbouring Moldova with regard to the Russian ban.

Later that afternoon I participated in a conference with Romanian agriculture and rural stakeholders on the title of "Tackling poverty and social exclusion in Romania's rural areas: The contribution of NRDP 2014-2020", kindly hosted by the highly efficient EU Commission Delegation to Romania, led by Angela Filote. I was delighted to be asked to participate where I could highlight what I feel is the importance of modernisation of the farming sector across the EU as an issue of social inclusion and social justice as much as it is an issue of economic development. It's my view that we cannot afford to ignore SME's across and EU Member States in addition to Europe's Young Farmers.

Yesterday I participated in the Agri Council of Ministers. I participated in the orientation debate on the Organics proposal where I received welcome feedback from Ministers. The Latvian Presidency also held an orientation debate on the milk sector, where I took the opportunity to outline reforms I intend to put in place to the Milk Market Observatory as part of my heightened vigilance of the sector in the post-quota era. Finally, I received some oral contributions (to add to the 580 pages of written submissions!) on the simplification agenda from Ministers. We are working through the implementation of the new CAP, and one issue which has emerged is the May 15 deadline for submissions of payments applications. I have listened to the concerns raised by farmers and national administrations and am thus willing to show some flexibility, so have asked my services to look at pushing back the deadline by a few weeks. I will publish the new date in the coming days, so watch this space!