Fact Sheets: REFORM OF THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

At this stage it can already be predicted that the negotiations on the new financial perspective 2013-2020 cannot help but have an effect on agricultural discussions. In addition, irrespective of agro-budgetary factors, some ideas may already be put forward regarding the basic objectives and principles to be debated by the European institutions when the time comes:

The key objective of the reform for the post-2013 period will be taking the principles of the 2003 CAP reform further: consolidating a more competitive, market-oriented agriculture, with simpler and more legitimate support, which responds to citizens’ expectations with regard to the primary activity (in terms of food quality and safety, the environment, land use planning, animal welfare, green energy and/or the sustainable development of rural communities). It is even possible that the current CAP will be replaced by an agro-rural and food policy, which is more multifunctional and able to meet the challenges of globalisation.

With regard to EU intervention methods, some principles have emerged from the current debates:

multifunctional support measures tailored to targeted objectives and with recognised European added value; response to the main failures of the markets (such as negative externalities, agricultural risks, or the supply of public assets not remunerated by prices); a territorial approach to support with a view to maintaining the productive capacity of agriculture across the EU; increased selectivity of the beneficiaries of aid in line with the values of the European social model; administrative simplification; increased contractualisation within sectors and greater co-responsibility of operators for market regulation; extension of the principle of subsidiarity; and, possibly, increased cofinancing of new direct aid within a very restrictive financial framework.

Finally, with regard to mechanisms, there will be a shift from decoupling to targeting. The baton will be passed from the phase of decoupling agricultural aid and instead providing generic income support, which began in 2003, to a phase of recoupling instruments to specific objectives or functions.

Among the operational objectives to be supported will be: public interest goods and services connected to agricultural production which are provided to society without receiving adequate remuneration from the market (environmental services, work on the land and the landscape, carbon reservoirs within the context of combating climate change, etc.); compensation for the additional costs resulting from natural disadvantages and the requirements of the European social model (animal welfare, traceability and certified quality; protecting biodiversity and areas of high added value, etc.); competitiveness and innovation within the framework of the ‘2020 Strategy’ for growth and employment; organising of the food chain with a view to creating added value and improved distribution among all the operators involved; and, finally, the stability of the internal market with regard to climate and epidemiological risks as well as the increased volatility of prices and costs on the agricultural raw materials markets, which are becoming increasingly open and interdependent with the energy and financial markets.

Donwload REFORM OF THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

Donwload THE FUTURE OF THE QUALITY POLICY IN THE LIGHT OF THE CAP POST-2013

See also in this section: The CAP towards 2020: Possible scenarios for the reallocation of the budget for direct payments

For more information see the EP link for notes and documents:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/studies.do?

language=EN - topic: agriculture and rural development