A group of regional agriculture ministers in Brussels this week called for a far-reaching and fundamental reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – but the European Commission remains hesitant.

Read the original German story here.

Although the most recent reform of the CAP, the EU’s flagship farm subsidy programme came into force at the start of the year with the current funding period running until 2027, debates on the next funding period are already in full swing.

In recent months, there has been a growing number of voices, particularly from Germany, calling for far-reaching reform.

Berlin has made repeated efforts to initiate debates on the future direction of the EU’s billions in agricultural funds and on preparing the bloc for Ukraine’s accession as an agricultural heavyweight to the Union and thus also to the CAP.

However, Germany’s federal states are also keen to put their stamp on the reform process.

On Tuesday (26 September), agriculture ministers of three federal states joined forces in Brussels to call for a fundamental reform of the CAP that would leave behind “unconditional area payments” and instead focus on the principle of a “common good premium”.

Although there is already a whole range of instruments for more environmental, climate, and animal protection within the CAP, a large part of the money – the so-called direct payments – continues to be paid to farms solely based on the farm area.

Furthermore, direct payments are only tied to compliance with certain basic conditions – something the German state ministers want to change.

“Future support policy must be consistently geared towards maintaining the social function of agriculture,” stressed Schleswig-Holstein region’s centre-right agriculture minister Werner Schwarz, who stressed that his views and those of his two colleagues were “not so far apart”.

A ‘common good’ points system

Indeed, both Saxony’s minister Wolfram Günther and Lower Saxony’s Miriam Staudte, both Greens, drew a similar version to the Schleswig-Holstein’s Schwarz, at least in broad strokes.

“The big challenge is to say: we have these public services that are wanted and demanded, but they have to generate revenue,” said Staudte.

To ensure this, the three ministers are considering a points system for distributing agricultural subsidies in the future. The idea is that the more measures a farm implements that benefit the general public, the more subsidies it will receive.

Farmers would be able to choose from different modules. “If agriculture really wants to implement public goals, it must also have a real financial incentive,” Günther stressed.

The points system should not only provide this incentive but also end the simultaneity of different support instruments within the CAP, thus making it simpler and less bureaucratic, according to the regional ministers.

Commission more cautious

However, Commission representative Michael Niejahr was much more cautious about such a miracle solution for the CAP.

From the Commission’s point of view, it was “premature” to discuss the next reform, he said. In particular, “detailed instruments” should not be discussed at this stage.

Instead, the first question should be: “What challenge do we have, and what objectives do we actually want to define?”

After all, this is the approach European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen invoked in her recent State of the EU address when she suggested a “strategic dialogue” on the future of agriculture.

Niejahr also distanced himself from the idea put forward by the ministers of redesigning the CAP system from the ground up.

“I think that in spite of everything, we took a good step forward with the last agricultural reform,” he stressed.

The devil is in the detail

At the same time, the Commission official argued that even a points-based model based on the common good would not resolve all the internal tensions in the EU’s agricultural policy.

For example, it would not be possible to achieve a simplification of the CAP while increasing flexibility and tailoring at the same time.

“You have to do both at the same time, but there will always be some trade-offs,” he stressed.

And then there is the question of what constitutes the “common good”: While the two Green ministers emphasised environmental and climate protection, CDU politician Schwarz believes that food security should also be defined as such.

After all, food security is enshrined in the EU’s founding treaties, Niejahr pointed out – and is thus the main reason why the CAP exists in the first place.

Source: Euractiv.com