European Parliament definitively adopts new Common Agricultural Policy
The European Parliament in Strasbourg.
© AP - Jean-Francois Badias
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Endowed with a colossal budget, nearly 400 billion euros until 2027, this new CAP is intended to "
green
" European agriculture.
But it is far from meeting Europe's climate ambitions, according to its detractors.
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It is a definitive green light for a text supposed to reconcile the CAP and ecology. For the MEPs who voted for it, this new Common Agricultural Policy will make it possible to meet the environmental ambitions of the European Union, indicates our special envoy to Strasbourg,
Daniel Vallot
.
"
In this new CAP,
to obtain most of the funding and in particular direct aid from the first pillar, farmers will have to comply with many environmental and climatic standards, and therefore make a lot of efforts,"
explains Anne Sander, right-wing MEP, member of the European People's Party
.
It is a CAP that allows for significant environmental ambition.
This is a big step forward compared to what we have seen in the past.
"
►
Also to listen: What agricultural policy for the European Union?
Green bonuses to farmers
This CAP will apply from January 2023. It has a budget of 387 billion euros until 2027, or nearly a third of the EU's multiannual budget.
It includes 270 billion in direct aid to farmers, France remaining the main beneficiary country.
The reform plans to grant bonuses to farmers participating in more demanding environmental programs, using more ecological techniques or contributing to improving animal welfare.
States will have to devote an average of 25% per year of direct payments to these “eco-schemes” between 2023 and 2027, with the possibility of devoting only 20% to them for the first two years.
Each State must prepare by the end of 2021 a “
strategic plan
” detailing its use of European funds.
Brussels will have to verify the compliance of these national agricultural policies with the objectives of reducing greenhouse gases (Green Pact) and reducing pesticides by 50% by 2030, with a quarter of the land reserved for organic farming.
"Greenwashing operations"
Outside Parliament, young environmentalists carry the coffin of organic farming.
For them, this vote buries the hope of an environmentally conscious CAP.
“
It's display, it's communication!
denounces Manuel Bompard, left-wing MEP La France Insoumise, who voted against this new CAP.
In reality, from the point of view of environmental conditionalities, which are necessary to reach aid, there is very little progress. The new schemes that are being put in place, what are called eco-schemes, are so undefined that they actually open the door to all greenwashing operations. We pretend to make the transition to be able to raise funds.
"
Another criticism formulated by environmentalists and part of the left-wing deputies: the distribution of aid according to cultivated hectares, and not jobs.
A system, they say, which “
promotes productivist agriculture
”.
Today, 80% of CAP aid is allocated to 20% of farmers.
►
See also: EU: the 27 agree on a greener common agricultural policy, the NGOs disappointed
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Agriculture and Fishing