AUTHORS: Stephen Meredith – Anne Maréchal – Faustine Bas-Defossez

A preliminary assessment by IEEP shows that EU Agriculture Ministers and the European Parliament have failed to address six essential areas for keeping the green ambition of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) alive.

IEEP has conducted a preliminary assessment of the European Council’s and the European Parliament’s positions against six essential elements for keeping the CAP’s environmental ambition alive. Both institutions have failed the test. Their positions undermine 4 out of the 6 points, while the other 2 do not contain sufficient safeguards to firmly preserve or build on the environmental and climate proposals put forward by the European Commission.

The EU Agriculture Ministers (AGRIFISH Council) adopted their position, also known as a ‘general approach’, on the CAP post-2020 at their Council meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, 20 October, while the European Parliament’s vote on the CAP files took place between 20 and 23 October. Both EU institutions are forming their positions on the Commission’s 2018 legislative proposal on the CAP Strategic Plans (COM/2018/392 final) which will pave the way for inter-institutional negotiations between the European Council, Parliament and Commission in the coming weeks (see references to previous IEEP analyses below).

The new CAP, which will apply until 2027, has a critical role to play in increasing the EU agriculture and food sectors’ environmental and climate performance. The policy is also pivotal in delivering the European Green Deal objectives including the targets set out in the EU Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies.

All eyes now turn to the inter-institutional negotiations where EU leaders have one last chance to salvage the withering green credentials of this reform. Not doing so would be a missed opportunity and seriously undermine the future of farming in Europe.

— Faustine Bas-Defossez, Principal Policy Analyst and Head of Agriculture and Land Management Programme at IEEP