The leaked CAP proposals have sparked initial reactions by a number of policy stakeholders.

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The Commission published its Legal Proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013 on 12 October 2011. This is the first time that decisions on CAP reform have involved the European Parliament as well as the European Council under the ordinary legislative procedure. As such there is considerable uncertainty as to how long the process of negotiation and reaching agreement will take.

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Today’s proposals from the Commission on the future CAP could have represented a major step towards improved environmental management across the EU, but in practice they leave major doubts over how much really will be delivered. Bold ambitions to green the CAP have become diluted by a focus on increasing the legitimacy of direct payments to farmers - at the expense of measures capable of maximising the delivery of environmental public goods. One of the reasons for this is that the new green payments under Pillar 1 have to be applicable in all parts of the EU and paid annually. This creates real challenges for sustaining substantive environmental improvements over time.

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Debate on the forthcoming draft CAP proposals from the Commission has warmed up rapidly with the end of the summer break. Views on how various leaked proposals would impact on farming and the environment are being put forward with some urgency. The potential environmental benefits to be had from the proposal to allocate 30 per cent of the future Pillar 1 direct payments to support ‘green’ practices has been recognised. However, the degree to which it could deliver successfully for the environment depends on a variety of issues that have been highlighted in a new paper drawn up by BirdLife International. This has been produced to coincide with the Commission’s Inter-Service Consultation on Commissioner Ciolos’ CAP reform proposals, expected to occur in early September.

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The Slow Food International Headquarters in Bra, Italy, are conducting a research project that looks at the issues facing young food producers in European countries.

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The UK House of Lords select committee inquiry into Innovation in EU Agriculture was published on 7 July 2011. The aim of the inquiry was to establish how innovation in EU agriculture can be encouraged in relation to the EU’s new Strategy for Growth and Jobs, Europe 2020, and in the context of new challenges such as climate change, water scarcity and the need to encourage increased production and competitiveness in a sustainable way.

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As a contribution to the debate on the design of the future CAP, IEEP has produced a paper that sets out a series of conditions that the European Commission’s proposals for ‘greening’ Pillar 1 need to meet if a substantive ‘greening’ is to be achieved in practice in order to deliver their objective of improving environmental outcomes across most of the EU farmed landscape.

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The Commission College debated for a long day before agreeing their proposals for the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) late on Wednesday evening. The CAP (€372 billion) remains a sizeable element of the Budget but now accounts for a fractionally smaller share of the overall MFF cake than the Cohesion Policy (€376 billion). The two Pillars remain and the basic structure of the CAP is not radically altered although the formal objectives now reflect the priorities of Europe 2020 much more explicitly. Indeed promoting resource efficiency has pride of place in the new objectives along with 'smart, sustainable and inclusive growth'.

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In the run up to the announcement of the Commission’s proposals on the EU budget for 2014-2020, rumours abound that a large slice of Pillar 2 of the CAP, essential for delivering environmental management throughout the EU-27, may be sacrificed to avoid significant cuts to Pillar 1 direct payments to farmers.

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DG Agriculture has published three new briefings discussing key aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) pertinent to the debate on its future design and structure. These Agricultural Policy Perspectives critically explore how the CAP might evolve in the future and provide an insight to the Commission’s stance on the future for direct payments, market measures and rural development within the CAP.

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The Agriculture Council met in Brussels on Tuesday 14th December for the last meeting under the 2010 Belgium Presidency. Support for Less Favoured Areas, greening of Pillar One and simplification were among the key issues discussed together with major discussions surrounding the Commission’s dairy reform as well as a revision of the EU quality rules.

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The European Commission’s blueprint for a future CAP has sparked a variety of reactions from both lobbyists and stakeholders. Cap2020 has brought together a selection of responses to the Communication which can be viewed in this article.

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The Communication published by the European Commission on 18 November (COM(2010) 672 final) represents a potentially bold move to reorient the CAP into a policy that meets the needs of EU society and the challenges – economic, social and environmental – of the next decade. However, the paper is stronger on ideas than specifics.

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Talks at the October Agriculture Council mostly centred on the simplification measures proposed by the Commission to bring the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in line with the Lisbon Treaty. In the margins it emerged that a meeting was planned between the EU-12 Agriculture Ministers, convened by Polish Minister Marek Sawicki in response to the Franco-German position paper.

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A draft copy of the Commission’s much anticipated Communication on the future CAP, expected to be launched formally on 17 November, has been leaked ahead of its release into inter-service consultation.

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