On 12th October 2011, the European Commission finally came up with the long-awaited proposals for reform to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013. The highlight of the Commission’s proposals was linking direct CAP payments to an obligation for farmers to “become green.” The resolution to reduce the environmental impacts of farming has provoked both the worries of farmers’ associations and the strong approval of the European Environment Agency (EEA).
The proposal to reform the CAP in this environmentally-friendly direction may be traced back to the adoption of the 2050 Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy by the European Commission in March 2011, aimed also at reduction of the need to purchase carbon credits from outside the EU. According to the Commission’s analysis presented in the 2050 Roadmap, the agricultural sector has the potential to significantly reduce its non-CO2 emissions.
This in turn is reflected in the CAP measures proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday. The most important element in the new green strategy is reserving a share of direct payments allocated under the CAP for green farming, that is, receiving subsidies will depend to a certain extent on adoption of practices such as crop diversification and landscape preservation. This condition, together with the proposal of capping annual payments to a single farm at 300,000, has spawned heated reactions among landowners throughout the EU.
The strongest criticism toward the proposed measures seems to be coming from the Emerald Isle, where the Irish farm minister Simon Convey was “not happy” with parts of the Commission’s proposal. Moreover, there are expectations that environmental obligations might lead to “a whole new level of bureaucracy and red tape,” as John Bryan, president of the Irish Farmers’ Association, commented on the green dimension of the new strategy.
What the proposed CAP environmental reforms mean in practice is that 30% of the direct payments will be specifically spent on the improved use of natural resources. The measures will create obligations for farmers in three different directions – to maintain permanent pastures, to cultivate at least three different crops on their arable land and to put aside 7% of their farmland as an “ecological focus area”, or, in other words, to leave the land fallow. And while the decision whether to apply such practices will be voluntary, farmers might be faced with the possibility of losing the direct payments they have hitherto been receiving.
While the proposal from the European Commission seems to come as a shock, it is a logical consequence of the 2050 competitive low carbon economy Roadmap. The goals stated in the 2050 Roadmap include 36-37% reduction of non-CO2 emissions in the agricultural sector by 2030, and 42-49% by 2050. Among the recommendations concerning agricultural practices in the Roadmap are maintaining grasslands, reducing erosion and development of forests. It is not difficult to notice that these are quite directly reflected in the CAP changes proposed by the Commission.
Tackling pollution from the agricultural sector is an approach hardly reserved for the European region. The recently adopted Carbon Farming Initiative by the Australian government gives incentive to Australian farmers and foresters to implement green practices, by providing them with the opportunity to participate on the market for carbon credits. The purpose the EU is trying to achieve is similar; however, instead of stimulating farmers with the option to generate carbon credits, the Commission has decided to bind the existing practice of payment of CAP subsidies to the obligation for “greening” measures.
On the other side of the barricade, green NGOs and environmentalists do not think that the Commission’s environmental measures go far enough, as crop rotation will not end planting of intensive monocultures that damage soil and use a lot of fertilisers. EEA’s reaction, however, is highly positive since the new measures are expected to reduce the impact that farming has on climate change.
Despite all the negative comments, the proposed measures may indirectly assist Member States in their efforts to limit their respective emissions from the agricultural sector; as it is currently not included in the EU Emissions Trading System for carbon credits, it falls under the provisions of the “Effort Sharing Decision”, which imposes annual binding emission targets to the EU Member States for non-ETS sectors, such as transport, agriculture and waste.
Even though the European Commission’s green vision on the Common Agricultural Policy does not seem to enjoy much popularity and support among European farmers and landowners so far, it is a part of the broader European perspective for moving to a competitive low carbon economy. The CAP reforms are expected to be in place as of January 2014, however, with the co-decision procedure still lying ahead, the future of EU’s greener farming is now in the hands of the European Parliament.