Irish Regions Office Website

September 27, 2010

CAP reform discussions: scope widens beyond farming

Ambitions to radically adapt the next generation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from its traditional farming emphasis to additionally encompass a new set of responsibilities would seem to be gaining momentum. This is tied up in a thinking that the spending of 40% of the total EU budget needs to better contribute as part of the EU's response to wider challenges - principally by corresponding with the overarching 'Europe 2020' Strategy to deliver growth and employment according to intelligent, sustainable and socially inclusive approaches.

Over time the focus of CAP has expanded from its original aims of ensuring food productivity and supply; market stability; and supporting farming incomes while keeping consumer prices low to also address food safety, animal welfare, environmental stewardship, and rural development. A July conference organised by DG Agriculture & Rural Development after undertaking a consultation among stakeholders and the wider public debated the opportunities to further move European agriculture from an intensive production model towards an approach that places more value on the environment as well as rural economic diversification and local product specificities.

Of late, the two new areas of focus most spoken of are management of public (environmental) goods and ''green growth'' measures to assist the wider rural economy. This would entail a much greater emphasis on direct payments to farmers (CAP pillar 1) being contingent on efforts to maintain the availability and quality of natural resources of great societal and economic benefit through sustainable long-term and resource-efficient management practices such as through less polluting production processes. Issues around which activities relating to ''public goods'' connected to agriculture might be expected include landscapes; farmland biodiversity; water quality and availability; soil functionality; greenhouse gas emissions; air quality; and flood resilience.

This development of synergies between EU agriculture and environmental practices would greatly extend previous CAP reform attempts to make European farming both more competitive and sustainable. These ambitions are allied with the issue of using CAP resources to unlock the off-farm economic potential of rural areas (e.g. tourism, development of bio-energy resources) as part of a general overhaul of rural development policy.

Consultation summary report
Further details

Posted by iroronan at September 27, 2010 03:40 PM