Efforts to “water down” the higher environmental action in the next CAP provides ammunition to those who want to withdraw the proposal, former European Commissioner Phil Hogan has warned.

Hogan, who served as trade and agriculture commissioner, said a withdrawal of the policy for redrafting due to a lack of green ambition, although unlikely, would jeopardise the hard fought CAP budget.

The proposals were drafted under Hogan’s tenure and he told the Ludgate farming conference on Wednesday that without higher environmental expectations, farmers would face payment cuts. A strong CAP budget was conditional on maintaining these higher standards, he cautioned.

“Agriculture still has friends, but they are becoming fewer and less influential, when compared to the champions of the new EU priorities,” Hogan said.

He lamented a lazy temptation to demonise farmers, particularly dairy farmers, as are part of the problem and not part of the solution. The next CAP takes a small first small step to coupling payments, not to production, but rather climate and environmental targets, according to Alan Matthews, Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy.

Matthews said the link made by Hogan between the CAP budget, the flow of payments to farmers, and the need for a greater contribution to environmental challenges was an important message.

The Commission’s small step would be “intensified” if the targets in the EU’s Green Deal were integrated into the CAP.

These objectives include reducing the use of fertilisers, pesticides and antibiotics, and an increase in organic farming.