Recent Council changes to ‘conditionality’ for CAP direct payments severely weaken what the agricultural sector could deliver for the environment and climate in the next 7 years. This is difficult to justify and is a poor foundation for demanding the budget to be maintained.
30 actions to transform the Commission’s proposals into a genuine transition tool.
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.
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.
New delivery model offers some potential to support a more environmentally ambitious CAP, but IEEP analysis suggests it contains many loopholes which risk maintaining the status quo.
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.
If caring for the planet starts from the ground, then caring for the planet starts with farmers and foresters and all others who manage and use Europe’s soils.
The European Commission launched its long expected Communication on ‘the Future of Food and Farming’ on 29 November. Here's IEEP's initial reaction.
The results of the Commission’s recent public consultation on the future of the CAP have reinforced the message that the CAP must do more to deliver for the environment and climate.
The agriculture sector has great potential to reduce its GHG emissions in a cost-effective way, with limited or no production impacts, as well as gain efficiency and deliver environmental benefits in the process. However, to play and enhanced role in delivering the EU’s climate objectives requires commitment from both Member States and the agricultural sector.
RISE Foundation project outlines new thinking on the further modernisation of the CAP
Key messages from the DG AGRI Outlook conference 2016.
Ecological Focus Areas are intended to safeguard and improve biodiversity on arable farms in the EU. What evidence is there that they are actually delivering biodiversity on farmland?
As governments from all EU Member States but the UK gathered on Friday 16 September in Bratislava to discuss the future of the European Union, a similar agriculture-focused gathering was held in Chambord, France, on 2 September 2016.
David Baldock sets out his view on the Cork 2 conference which he and others at IEEP attended and about what this might mean for the future of rural development policy.
