Activities of Nicola CAPUTO related to 2017/2043(BUD)
Plenary speeches (1)
2018 Budget - Mandate for the trilogue IT
Amendments (25)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses the importance of agriculture and rural development in delivering a number of EU objectives, such as in the areas of food security, job creation, the environment and territorial balance, and the fact that agriculture and rural development constitute an important part of the overall EU budget; recognizes the role of the European Institutions in the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy; recalls that spending on agriculture has declined in relative terms and now accounts for around 38 % of the EU budget;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses the importance of agriculture and rural development in delivering a number of EU objectives, such as in the areas of food security, job creation, the environment, innovation, sustainable development and territorial balance, and the fact that agriculture and rural development constitute an important part of the overall EU budget; recalls that spending on agriculture has declined in relative terms and now accounts for around 38 % of the EU budget;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Stresses the Member States to fully exploit the programming tools available under the current financial period on behalf of agriculture and rural development; urges the Commission to further ensure the smooth implementation of these programs;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. RStresses that the Commission should reliably estimate the needs of agriculture under Heading 2; requests that all available margins under Heading 2 be reserved for the agricultural sector, even despite of other existing political priorities; calls for consistent application of the principle that all revenue derived from agriculture remains within the agriculture budget;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. IStresses the important role of the crisis reserves; insists that any funds from the 2017 budget that are allocated to the agricultural sector crisis reserve through the financial discipline mechanism and are left unspent be made available in full as direct payments in the 2018 budget in accordance with Article 26(5) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Notes that the points covered by the 'omnibus package' make the implementation potential higher, and that these points should find appropriate reflection in the 2018 budget; highlights that the budgetary implementation has to meet with the improved potential of this simplification; calls for sufficient funds to be made available in order to implement all elements of the CAP simplification; stresses that the simplification of the CAP should also ensure the further reduction of error rates in the use of the funds, while the positive changes also have to mean end user simplifications; supports all steps made towards the performance based approach;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Notes that European agriculture has increasingly been exposed to crises in recent years; calls therefore on the Commission to reconsider the system of contingency funding and to create a new instrument that allows rapid political intervention in the event of a crisis, without burdening the annual direct payments;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to monitor, in a timely way, the price volatility of agricultural products which has adverse effects on farmers' incomes, and to react promptly and effectively when needed, giving farmers directly the option of combating such price volatility;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Considers that the active farmers clause set out in Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 ensures that any reputational risk associated with EU funds is eliminated; asks the Commission to ensure uniform application of the criteria of the active farmers clause with the view of a simplified but more reliable identification of these farmers;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Insists that the initiatives targeting young farmers should be maintained, which supports innovation and generation renewal;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. UHighlights the continuing imbalances in the food supply chain, in which the position of primary producers is considerably weaker than that of other actors; urges the Commission to incentivise the creation of producer organisations as one of several means of tackling unfair trading practices in the food supply chain, and recalls its repeated requests for EU legislation in this regard;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Insists that adequate amount of resources are provided for controls in food chain, with a particular attention to trade relations and the equal food nutrient contents throughout the EU;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Commends the role of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) in bridging the investment gap across the EU and supports its extension until 2020; underlines its position in the on-going legislative negotiations that no further cuts should be incurred on existing EU programmes in order to finance this extension; points to persistent differences in the eligibility criteria, regulations, timeframe for reporting and the application of state aid rules, which hinder combined usage of EFSI and ESI Fund and hopes the revision of the Financial Regulation will be performed in a timely manner so as to simplify the combination of financing and avoid competition and overlaps;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Considers that opportunities offered by ‘smart’ solutions should be further analysed and exploitedzed and exploited; notes that integrated 'smart' solutions - such as smart villages which cover precision farming, digitalisation, shared and circular economy, social aspects as well - can contribute to the overall well-being in rural areas; points out that villages need to be considered to ensure economically viable, attractive for living and environmentally sustainable rural areas; welcomes the existing and future projects which are targeting this approach; urges the Commission to plan reserve for the smart approaches in the light of the CAP reform and the Cork 2.0 Declaration;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Points out that active organizations in rural development (such as Local Action Groups) might face difficulties in accessing bank guarantees, which is a prerequisite for benefits from advance payments on running and animation cost; urges the Commission and the Member States to ensure the smooth implementation of the community based approaches;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Stresses that it is essential that funds earmarked for research in the agri- food sector, in particular from the Horizon 2020 budget, remain fully available as such in order to stimulate innovation in the agricultural sector;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Welcomes the creation of new market observatories for crops and sugar; considers that new observatories coveringwhile recognising the Commission's effort to continue the reform aiming at further boosting the fruits and vegetables would be beneficial to thosesector, considers that producers groups and observatories covering this sectors and, together with the milk and meat sectors might be beneficial; notes that market observatories, would can make agricultural markets more transparent by giving a more precise overlook on sectors;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Highlights the importance of pilot projects to the Committee and, on behalf of the agricultural and the rural development sectors in recent years and asks for continued support, especially for those ongoing projects that have proved very successful;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Recognises the role of financial resources in alleviating any impacts resulting from price volatility; notes also that a sector specific income stabilisation tool based on a mutual fund is an appropriate approach; insists further that some specific agricultural sub-sectors and initiatives, such as bee-keeping and the school milk and fruit programmes are in need of staying in focus;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Asks that sufficient funds be earmarked for EU veterinary and phyto- sanitary actions; stresses that the current appropriation of EUR 20 million may not be sufficient to cover an increased number of epidemics such as avian influenza, lumpy skin disease and fresh outbreaks of Xylella fastidiosa.; notes that other risk management tools, in case of environmental incidents, market related hazards or revenue variations have also to be further maintained;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Insists on the need to provide funds to compensate for the economic losses suffered by farmers due to market crises and sanitary or phytosanitary crises such as Xylella fastidiosa, and reiterates the need to use the available margins under Heading 2 in cooperation with Heading 3 to this effect; insists that compensation for eradication should also cover rehabilitation of agroecosystems including the soil, as well as establishing robust biological diversity, especially ensuring genetic diversity of the planting stock that ideally includes resistance to or tolerance of the disease or pest; indeed, considers that one of the aims of any aid granted should be to ensure balanced, biologically diverse agro-ecosystems and landscapes that are less susceptible to future attacks;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9 b. Calls for additional funding to be earmarked for the olive-growing and olive oil sector to offset losses to farmers caused by the Xylella fastidiosa outbreak, to step up prevention measures in Europe and to restructure the sector and consolidate scientific research into the pathogen and its carrier;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal to fund the continuation of the Youth Employment Initiative and notes the proposed mobilisation of EUR 233.3 million from the global margin for commitments; calls on the Commission and the Member States to follow the indications of the recent report of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in order to carry out an impact assessment specifying expected costs and benefits; recalls that any increase in the dedicated allocation for YEI should be matched with the corresponding amounts from the European Social Fund (ESF);
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
Paragraph 45
45. Notes the overall increase in draft budget 2018 for decentralised agencies by +3.1 % (not taking into account assigned revenues) and +146 posts but highlights wide differences between ‘cruising speed’ agencies (-11.2 %) and ‘new tasks’ agencies (+10.5%); assumes that these figures properly reflect the fact that since 2013 most agencies have completed or even exceeded the 5 % staff cuts (some are to complete them in 2018), while staff increases in the same period were confined to agencies dealing with migration and security (+183 posts), financial supervisory agencies (+28 posts) and some agencies entrusted with new tasks (ERA, EASA, GSA) (+18 posts); notes with concern that staff cuts are also applied regardless of increases in some agencies' core tasks, in particular when these are financed by applicant's fees; reiterates its call, as expressed in the 2015 discharge report, to safeguard and where necessary provide additional resources to ensure the proper functioning of the agencies, including the Agencies Network’s Permanent Secretariat (now called Shared Support Office);
Amendment 225 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46 a (new)
Paragraph 46 a (new)
46 a. Notes EU agencies currently located in the UK will be facing an additional workload and budgetary needs in 2018 as a consequence of the decision of the UK to withdraw from the Union; calls on the Commission to make available additional staff and budget resources in 2018, to ensure that these agencies can both continue to carry out their tasks effectively and launch all required activities in preparation of their relocation in 2019 including significant IT and infrastructure investments; proposes in addition that the agencies, in the spirit of sound financial management, be authorised to maintain a budgetary reserve to respond to unforeseen costs and unfavourable exchange rate fluctuations that may be incurred in 2018 or beyond;