Greening of CAP ‘simply doesn’t offer value for money’
As talks resume this week on the issue between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of Agriculture Ministers, the report for Europe’s largest environmental citizens’ organisation said the greening of the CAP was doomed to failure.
This, according to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), is because it will allow farms to secure European funding while not taking measures to support the environment.
The study, launched today, examined how much existing certification schemes for farm products could be considered equivalent to measures proposed by the commission.
In Oct 2011, it proposed three compulsory greening measures of crop diversification, maintaining permanent grassland, and managing 7% of holdings as ecological focus areas.
“The study concludes that while equivalence may sound like a sensible and practical option in theory, the practical issues with its application are likely to lead to far greater administrative complexity and cost, both for member states and within the commission, and with little additional environmental benefit,” said the EEB.
The “greening by definition” of farmers was examined for the EEB by the Institute for European Environmental Policy, by looking at the impact on the ground in Ireland, France, Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.
With the support of An Taisce and BirdWatch Ireland, the EEB is hosting a conference in Dublin which will be attended by farming, environmental and consumer organisations, and European and Irish agriculture officials.
An Taisce policy director James Nix said green “by definition” does very little to position farmers for lower pollution and more competitive production. “It simply doesn’t offer value for money,” he said.
EEB senior agriculture policy officer Faustine Defossez said the greening of the CAP must simplify, rather than expensively over-complicate, future delivery of environmental outcomes from agriculture.
