The new CAP: for more modern and efficient agriculture

The EPP Group has had a crucial role in the CAP reform with the objective of modernizing the EU's legislation to increase the competitiveness of Europe's agriculture.

More in details the EPP Group proposed the new rules in the CAP that now will make farming more competitive while enabling consumers to benefit from affordable yet high-quality foodstuffs circulating in the EU market. Consumers will benefit from a wide range of choice at low prices.

The EPP Group introduced new rules giving young farmers more support to counter the alarming decline in young people taking over farms. The new CAP will ensure that only those genuinely engaged in agricultural production are to receive EU support. All farming funds will have to be invested into a green, modern agriculture, making sure European consumers get the best deal out of a 21st century agricultural policy.

“Now that we have a new CAP we must allow farmers more time to familiarise with the new rules, it is a matter of fairness. Therefore, no sanctions will be levied in the first two years of the new CAP and only then it will gradually rise up until the level of 25%. Important achievements in the report were also the powers of the European Parliament and the early warning system alert that we managed to set up”, underlined Giovanni La Via MEP (EPP/IT) Rapporteur on Financing, management and monitoring of the CAP.

"Additional tools to strengthen farmers' position in the food supply chain and to anticipate and manage crises are necessary given the weaker role public authorities play on the EU agricultural market. However, new rules must not translate into cartels, but stronger producer organisations should help farmers to improve their economic situation. After having successfully designed a new European framework for the CAP, we need to remain focused about its implementation, whether at EU level through the Commission's delegated acts, or at national level through Member Stats' decisions made under the principle of subsidiarity” said Michel Dantin MEP (EPP/FR), rapporteur for the common market organisation regulation.

EPP Group Rapporteur for Direct Payments, Mairead McGuinness MEP (EPP/IRL), said today's vote is vital to concluding the complicated process of CAP reform. "What we now demand is that member states act quickly and clarify how they intend to implement the new CAP so that farmers have certainty to allow them plan for the future. Member states demanded flexibility in the reforms and they have that flexibility which must be used to good effect.The impact of environmental demands on farmers by way of new greening requirements have been modified to fit real farming situations. This is a new direction for the CAP in terms of land-based payments and environmental demands and we have fought for and won the right to review the policy mid-term to ensure that it is working for farmers and food producers.Food is fundamental to EU society and EU farming is more than an economic activity it is a vital part of a sustainable EU," she added.

Elisabeth Köstinger MEP (EPP/AUS), EPP Group Shadow Rapporteur on the Programmes for Rural Development emphasizes the Programmes' importance to create growth and competitiveness: "The Programmes for Rural Development will promote more than ever local and regional cooperation between agriculture and other sectors, like projects for regional product flow or direct marketing of regional products and will intensify investments in innovations. We could ensure that farms that already participate in agricultural-environmental schemes will be recognised as 'green by definition' and exempt from additional greening requirements".

Background information

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been the engine of European integration as the EU’s first and, for many years, the only fully integrated policy. This reform package is a major make-over on the way agricultural funds are administered.

The 2013 CAP reform tackles future challenges for agriculture and rural areas meets the CAP objectives: viable food production; sustainable climate and natural resources management; and balanced territorial development.

The CAP budget for 2014-20 for all 28 member countries totals 95 billion euros. In 1984, the CAP accounted for 72% of the EU budget, in 2011 was 43% and this downward trend will continue after 2014 (the overall budget for the CAP will be 15% less in 2020 than it was in 2013).

In the EU there are 12 million farmers. Agriculture and the agri-foods industry account for 6% of the EU GDP. It comprises 15 million businesses and provides 46 million jobs.