Special Committee on Agriculture

The Special Committee on Agriculture ( SCA , English Special Committee on Agriculture , SCA ) is a body of the European Union . It prepares the meetings of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council and takes on the tasks of the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) in this policy area . The members of the SAL are high-level agricultural experts seconded from the Member States.

The separation of SAL and Coreper (which is responsible for preparing the Council meetings on all other policy areas) is due to the special role played by the common agricultural policy in the early stages of the European Community . Since the agricultural issues dealt with at European level were technically very complex and at the same time made up the largest part of the EC budget, a specially trained committee of experts should be set up for this area. However, it has repeatedly been criticized that the SAL strongly delimits agricultural policy from the other areas of the EU, which makes it difficult to deal with issues that affect both agriculture and other policy areas. The SAL was also accused of a lack of transparency and being too close to the European farmers' associations .