The German Marshall Fund of the United States is hosting three events this May which you may be interested in attending.

In this new CAP2020 Member State Reform Profile, the position of Austria on further reform of the CAP is discussed. The Austrian government is in favour of retaining the CAP largely in its current form after 2013. At the same time Austria retains a strong commitment to rural development, where the main focus of expenditure is on the agri-environment and less favoured area schemes.

BirdLife has published a new paper - “Food security, climate change & biodiversity” - to coincide with the first meeting of the G8 agriculture ministers, which draws to a close today with the expected publication of a joint declaration on food security.

The German Marshall Fund of the United States and Farmsubsidy.org are to host a briefing session on 'Budget Transparency in the European Union' on 7 May. It will mark the launch of a new farmsubsidy.org online database of farm subsidy payments.

In this CAP2020 Policy Briefing, written by IEEP, we examine some of the possible impacts of the economic downturn on the agricultural sector, and some of the implications for the policy environment. We analyse the way in which agriculture is being factored into the current set of economic recovery plans, and how comfortably the sector could sit within any future ‘Green New Deal’, promoted by some as providing the means to unite long term economic recovery with environmental protection. Ensuring the more environmentally sustainable use of agricultural land in the future, however, requires enough foresight to look beyond the more immediate threats borne by the downturn. From this perspective, we need to ensure that the future agricultural policy framework and budget are fit for responding to the increasingly urgent challenges that lie ahead, such as our ability to feed ourselves, the need to shift to a less carbon intensive economy, and to continue to enhance the protection of biodiversity and natural resources.

On December 11th 2008, a conference organised by CSO (BirdLife International’s Czech partner) and ProBio (the Czech organic farmers' association) addressed two questions: Where should the CAP move after 2013? And, how will it be affected by the revision of the EU budget? The presentations are now available at the CSO website. They include those of 8 Member States who have set out their ideas for the future development of the CAP, as well as contributions on food security and high nature value farming. Ariel Brunner has previously summarised the outcomes of the conference for CAP2020.

The Land Use Policy Group will be launching its vision for the future of the CAP on 30 March.

A review of the Greek position on the future of the CAP is now available. Written for CAP2020, the authors of the review suggest the Greek government strongly supports a policy that provides for the security and stability of its agricultural population, many of whom are small-scale family farmers.

The Commission is expected to present its plans for the future of the Less Favoured Area (LFA) measure in a Communication due to be published in April 2009. An oral statement provided by a senior Commission official to the UK House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union provides further information on the likely content of the proposal.

While the CAP reform debate is in full swing, the UK countries have been consulting on the structure and content of their future agricultural policies as part of the transition away from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

30 actions to transform the Commission’s proposals into a genuine transition tool.

Just a few days before EU Agriculture Ministers meet for the informal Council in Vienna and on the basis of the preparatory questions sent by the presidency to the delegations, the authors of this blog post identify the key elements for securing vibrant rural areas in the future CAP.

Those of us with long memories of CAP reforms know that there can be many dramas, dead ends and diversions along the way. Nonetheless, there has been a discernible direction of travel for two decades or more.