It remains unclear how EU-member states with powerful dairy industries will take into account the interests of farming communities outside Europe. While the instruments of which the CAP is comprised focus on the primary production inside the EU, impacts are felt within countries, in Europe and further afield. […]
The EU exports large quantities of milk and poultry to Western Africa. An even bigger focus on efficient commodity production in Europe might seriously hamper the status of Ghana as an emerging economy. […]
The post 2020 reform promised to deliver a fairer CAP: better targeting and distribution of resources. At the core of a fairer CAP, the Commission introduced mandatory capping – upper limits to payments – and degressivity – progressive reduction of payments above a certain level – to address a skewed distribution of around 80% of direct payments to only 20% of European farms. […]
“Scrap the current CAP proposal and start fresh to build a truly just and sustainable food system in Europe.” This is the message at the heart of Greenpeace’s call for complete reform of European food and farming policy. In a recently published statement, the Europe Unit of the global campaigning organisation pulls no punches in castigating the CAP driven model of food and farming in Europe and proposes its vision of alternative policy measures to bring about the necessary food system transformations. […]
CAP supposedly is climate ambitious, but it fails to really deliver. So what could be done differently? Joost de Jong of the Dutch Transition Coalition of Food Systems gives us some suggestions. […]
There are a number of policy imperatives coming together, all of which related in some way to farming, food and rural Europe. While CAP clanks on, the EU Green Deal and its Farm2Fork component have more ambition and perhaps momentum. But how will these policy proposals work out their differences, with pressure from some many angles bearing down on them? Oliver Moore sketches out the terrain. […]
Cuts of E7.5 Billion to rural development in Pillar 2, but a small increase in Pillar 1 Direct payments, all as part of a reduced overall CAP budget have been proposed by President of the European Council Charles Michel. How will EU Leaders react at next week’s summit? […]
From a central and east European perspective, equalisation of CAP payments between all member states is long overdue. What is the background to this expectation, and how likely or desirable is it now, with Wojciechowski as Commissioner? […]
Three-quarters of the Common Agricultural Policy budget goes into direct payments for farmers – almost regardless of what they do. Most of the money benefits just a few large producers and fails to deliver on the social and environmental challenges rural areas face. […]
“Member States may decide to set up eco-schemes for agricultural practices such as the enhanced management of permanent pastures and landscape features, and organic farming” says the European Commission. What does this practically mean for support for organic farming? […]
While the next CAP reform is still in discussion at the Council, and the European Parliament has not yet taken a final position, Samuel Féret explains the rationale of the new concept of CAP Strategic Plans (CSP) for a future CAP as proposed by the European Commission. This is intended as a pivotal piece of the future new delivery model, probably the biggest proposed change in how the CAP is set to operate in the future. The first in a five part article series on where next for CAP. […]
Last week saw the launch of the Agriculture Atlas, a collaboration between Heinrich Böll Foundation, Friends of the Earth Europe and BirdLife International on the state of play of EU farming policy. Including a contribution by ARC2020, this is a comprehensive, in-depth and timely resource. […]
In part one of this two part series, we outlined the background to the current CAP reform process thus far. Below, Sebastian Lakner unpacks where the different actors are at now, before a significant vote in the Agriculture Committee on the 2nd April (agenda here) (meeting documents here) […]
According to Eurostat statistics farm incomes are at a record high. So why aren’t farm organisations celebrating? And what do these numbers say about actual farm income in different member states of the European Union? […]
Some countries in Europe do a better job at bringing younger people into farming. So what techniques work – and don’t work – in an aging industry? With Hans Wetzels. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention