AUTHORS: Elisa Kollenda – Faustine Bas-Defossez – Stephen Meredith

The March ‘super trilogue’ is a decisive moment for the future of the EU’s farming policy. IEEP puts forward recommendations for ensuring that the next Common Agricultural Policy is fit to support an ambitious implementation of the European Green Deal.

After almost three years since the European Commission tabled its legislative proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in June 2018, decisions on the reform are slowly starting to take shape in trilogue negotiations between the Commission, Parliament and Council.

While reports on negotiation progress generally remain elusive, the smoke coming out from the trilogues room so far looks more grey than green, as some delegations are pushing for reopening the discussion around the few ‘green’ parts ‘agreed’ on the green architecture.

The need to effectively raise the ambition of the CAP’s environmental and climate action and to make an active contribution to the European Green Deal (EGD) continues to be a contentious issue amongst the institutions.

Drawing on the co-legislators’ negotiating positions, this briefing considers some of the issues of greatest concern for lifting the environmental and climate performance of the policy.