What do young farmers want from CAP reform? In this email interview, Alessia Musumarra, Secretary General of the European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA), acknowledges some wins in the European Parliament, identifies where more ambition is needed, and lays out what CEJA hopes to see from the trilogues. […]
The European Commission has initiated the process of building a vision for rural Europe for 2040. But to be genuinely valuable, a visioning exercise should look no further than the near future. ARC2020 president Hannes Lorenzen envisions the next seven years, looking ahead to 2027 before bringing us back to 2021 and the present day. […]
Can a cash-strapped EU afford to lock itself into a dysfunctional agricultural policy? In the wake of the new positions on CAP reform agreed by the Council and European Parliament last week, Sebastian Lakner unpacks some crucial elements – and finds a lack of vision, ambition and courage. […]
The European Green Deal has the potential to shape the CAP towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly policy. But as we’ve seen with the debate surrounding the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies published last month, it can also distract attention from the less obvious problems of the CAP. Analysis by Matteo Metta. […]
Greening measures found to be ineffective in enhancing the CAPs environmental performance, a report by the European Court of Auditors finds. As well as critique of the current greening measures, the ECA report provided a set of recommendations to improve environmental performance in the upcoming CAP reform. […]
There seems to be a do-very-little approach to EFAs as part of greening in Britain & Ireland. Peter Crosskey explains. […]
On the 3rd of June, Greek Agriculture Minister Athanasios Tsautaris announced proposals for the implementation of the new CAP. […]
Le Foll strikes a middle ground with coupled payments […]
Scottish National Party member and sitting MEP Alyn Smith shares his views in the run-up to the European elections. […]
The UK government has updated its CAP implementation timeline in preparation for a 2015 roll-out. […]
Oliver Moore takes a look back at the supposed greening of the CAP, through the rubric of Ecological Focus Areas. […]
Organic farming and agri-environmental schemes will not grow under current Rural Development plans . […]
Find out what’s happening with CAP reform implementation in your country with our updated toolkit. […]
What’s the reality behind the rhetoric of the EU’s CAP and LIFE Program? […]
(Brussels, 22/11/2013) BEGINS The European Parliament held its final vote on Wednesday 20th November on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In voting as it did, Parliament has it intensified the failure to deliver what was supposed to be a fairer, simpler and greener agriculture policy for Europe. ”Business as usual has prevailed at 90%” said Benedikt Haerlin of NGO platform ARC2020.EU and Meine Landwirtschaft. “Unfortunately the role of the European Parliament had been to substantially cut back on the initial progress towards sustainability proposed by the European Commission. From 2014 to 2020 we will see at least as many farms being closed down within the European Union, organic farming will suffer financially, biodiversity will suffer even more and the role of the European Union in the world will continue to be a resource-sucker at the expense of the global poor and the environment.” Importantly, all amendments, some of which could have improved the proposals, were dropped and not voted on. This democratically questionable move occurred due to a change in the voting order of the overall EU budget […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention