Member states have been warned that a reduction in environmental ambition in the next CAP is non-negotiable as far as the European Commission is concerned. European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan told EU agricultural ministers that any attempt to dilute the policy’s ambitions to tackle environmental and climate issues would be firmly opposed.
Commissioner Hogan made the comments on Tuesday ahead of a discussion between ministers on possible amendments to the policy.
“At the heart of the European Commission’s proposal, long before it was fashionable in European elections, was increasing the level of environmental ambition in agriculture,” the commissioner said.
Eco-schemes
He also stressed the value of eco-schemes, the new approach CAP will take to delivering agri-environmental schemes. These schemes will replace the greening element of direct payments. Member states will be obliged to offer such schemes but farmer participation will be optional.
Commissioner Hogan said eco-schemes were a novel approach that were extremely flexible: “You set the envelope, the interventions and the amount of support according to your needs and priorities. This is the value of the tool. It gets away from the one-size-fits-all and focuses on interventions that will work for you and your member state.”
Some member states had called for an option of whether to offer these schemes to farmers or not. Commissioner Hogan expressed serious concerns about such an approach, stating: “We are either going to be ambitious or we’re not. It is as though you don’t believe that we need to reinforce our toolbox.”
CAP budget
He warned that there would be budgetary consequences in the short and long term if the CAP did not deliver real and verifiable benefits for the environment.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Andrew Doyle represented Ireland at the meeting. He said Ireland supported mandatory eco-schemes but added that accounting rules must not hamper countries' environmental policy choices.
He again stressed that farmers could only deliver on environmental ambitions if there was sufficient funding for the CAP budget.
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