After three and a half years of negotiations, the Twenty-Seven and the European Parliament have finally agreed on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which will come into force in January 2023. Tuesday, November 23, MEPs, meeting in Strasbourg , adopted the new CAP – with an envelope of around 50 billion euros per year until 2027 -, which represents almost a third of the multiannual budget of the European Union (EU) and of which France remains the first beneficiary.
The EPP Conservatives and Renew Liberals voted for it. The S&D social democrats were divided when the Greens and the far left, who believe that the text is not ambitious enough for the environment, opposed it. Many NGOs have also denounced the shortcomings of the reform. In a tweet, climate activist Greta Thunberg for her part judged this CAP “Disastrous for the climate and the environment”, regretting that she was not “Not in line with the Paris agreement” of 2015, which sets the goal of limiting global warming “Well below” 2 ° C and if possible at 1.5 ° C.
An overall budget “down slightly”
If the debates focused on the global envelope – “Slightly down”, recognizes LR MEP Anne Sander – they mainly focused on greening the CAP and bringing it into line with European climate and environmental objectives. In general, the 27 are opposed to their being binding on farmers and the European Parliament has, from this point of view, not obtained any significant concession. The strategic plans, which the Member States will have to present to the Commission, in order to benefit from a large part of the CAP funds, will have to be “Coherent” with the legislations resulting from the Green Deal and to contribute to it, is satisfied to specify the final compromise.
” We defended an environmental CAP but with a strong economic component ” in favor of farmers, argues Anne Sander, for whom “We cannot say that the CAP does not take into account the green deal”. In theory, in any case, the CAP of tomorrow will be greener. Today around 30% of aid from this community policy – premiums paid to farmers and rural development budget – are conditional on compliance with measures such as the diversification of rotations or the maintenance of permanent meadows. From 2023, this percentage will rise to 78% on average (90% for France).
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