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The European Commission has launched the first phase of the modernisation and simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with the opening of a three-month public consultation. The contributions received will support the Commission's work to define the agricultural policy priorities for the future.

Consultations to modernise and simplify CAP would address the key challenges that agriculture and rural areas are facing while at the same time contributing to the Commission's policy priorities (notably in jobs and growth), to sustainable development, alongside a budget-focused results with additional accent on simplification and subsidiarity. 

Background

First launched in 1962, the Common Agricultural Policy is one of the EU's longest-standing policies and has evolved over the years to meet the changing challenges of agricultural markets. Although the most recent reforms date from 2013, there have been several fundamental developments since then to which the CAP needs to respond more effectively, such as increased market uncertainty and falling prices, new international commitments on climate change and sustainable development.

Faced with these and other challenges, CAP needs to be modernised, simplified to reduce even further the administrative burden and made even more coherent with other EU policies to maximise its contribution to the 10 political priorities of the Commission, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate change agreement of 2015.

The public consultation will run for 12 weeks and will give farmers, citizens, organisations and all interested parties the chance to comment on the CAP’s future. The input from the consultation will be used by the Commission to help draft a Communication, due by the end of 2017 that will include conclusions on the current CAP performance and potential policy options for the future based on reliable evidence.

The results of the public consultation will be published online and presented by Commissioner Hogan at a conference in Brussels in July 2017.

Announcing the consultation process, the EU Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan underlined that the Commission would like to take some steps towards modernising and simplifying the CAP in line with the 21^st century requirements.

He stressed that by launching the public consultation, the Commission intends to get advice from all those interested in the future of food and farming in Europe in order to shape customers’ oriented policy.

He added that CAP is already delivering major benefits for European citizens in terms of food security, the vitality of rural areas, the rural environment and the contribution to the climate change challenge. By designing a roadmap for the future, he argued, CAP can deliver even more with additional “refinement and revitalization”.

More information is available at:

 - Links to the consultation;

- Link to the Q&A on DG AGRI Further information on the Common Agricultural Policy;

- Europeans, agriculture and the Common Agricultural Policy: Eurobarometer 2016.

General source: Commission press release IP-17-187 “The Commission launches public consultation on the future of the CAP”, Brussels. 2.02.2017. In:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-187_en.htm?locale=en