On the initiative of the Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloş, and at a mid point in the negotiations on the reform of the CAP, the European Commission hosted a stakeholder conference on 13 July in Brussels, entitled ‘The CAP towards 2020 – taking stock with civil society’. The conference was intended to bring together the expertise and views of civil society to feed into the ongoing CAP reform process as well as an opportunity for the Commission to re-state the rationale behind their reform proposals.

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The European Parliament draft rapporteur reports on the Commission’s legislative proposals were officially released in late May and early June. Following this, Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos instigated and chaired a discussion among expert stakeholders at a high level conference, Shaping the Future of the Common Agricultural Policy, on 20 June.

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Two papers on greening, one to the Agriculture Council from Luxembourg and one from the Commission, have outlined some thinking on changes to the Commission’s original proposals to green direct payments. This short update explains briefly the content of the paper as well as the opportunities and risks they present for the environment

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On 10-11 May 2012, DG Environment organised a high-level, two-day soil conference in Brussels. Some of the key issues discussed were soil degradation, urban sprawl and food production. These discussions were carried out from a global and EU perspective. The conference was closed by a high-level panel discussion attended by Commissioners Dacian Cioloş and Janez Potočnik and leading representatives of the European Parliament, the Committee of Regions and Copa Cogeca. The second day of the conference in particular attracted the attention of large audiences from national and regional administrations, research circles, environment groups and farmers’ associations across the EU.

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