The Common Agricultural Policy

The task of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is to provide financial support to farmers as well as to control EU agricultural markets. It currently commands a budget of approximately €53 billion per year, and historically has been responsible for roughly half of the EU budget.

In the late 1950s when the CAP was created, its main goal was to increase yields in order to feed a hungry post-war Europe. This was achieved with great success, even creating huge food surpluses in the process (‘beef mountains’ and ‘milk lakes’), but at great cost to the natural environment. Agricultural habitats are very important to biodiversity, and support around half of all species in Europe. The intensification of farming to increase productivity, notably the use of large amounts of fertiliser and pesticide coupled with the homogenisation of the landscape has had a huge impact on these species. For example, European farmland birds declined by 50 % between 1980 and 2002; grassland butterflies have declined by 60 % since 1990, and there is no sign of levelling off. The realisation that the CAP was harming not only the biodiversity itself, but also the ecosystem services it provides (such as clean water, pest regulation, pollinator services etc.) led to a series of reforms that shifted the focus of the payments from production to good environmental stewardship of the land.

Under the current regulations, UK farmers are entitled to receive Single Farm Payments (‘Pillar I’) and Agri-Environment Scheme payments (‘Pillar II’). In order to qualify for the Single Farm Payments, farmers must adhere to a set of basic Statutory Management Requirements (SMR), and locally determined standards to ensure Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) that prevent damage to the environment from farm operations: this is termed ‘cross-compliance’. The various agri-environment schemes in the UK take this further, where farmers are rewarded for undertaking certain environmentally friendly management options (for links to AES in England, Scotland and Wales see below).

There is currently much discussion within the EU as to the direction the CAP should go in when the current programming period comes to an end in 2013, as the European Commission will deliver an orientation report late 2010. The CAP budget is expected to be cut significantly, and further channel its payments into supporting the public goods provided by agriculture rather than blanket support. Moves to further decouple payments from production are, however, meeting resistance, with worries about food security. There is concern that environmental measures such as cross-compliance and agri-environment schemes have not been very effective at conserving biodiversity, and changes need to be made to increase commitment to conservation. In particular, support should be targeted at the most biodiverse, or ‘High Nature Value’ farmland. These areas support high levels of biodiversity, yet are under the greatest threat of intensification or abandonment, as they have such low productivity that in some cases it is impossible to make a profit in today’s markets.

Read more about 'Greening the CAP' in the Biologist, November 2009 pp. 202-208.

We have made the following responses to consultations on the Common Agricultural Policy:

7 Dec 2010
A response to the EFRA Committee on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy

April 2011

Society of Biology Position Statement on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy

16 November 2011
A response to the EFRA committee on "Greening the Common Agricultural Policy"

Links

Reform of the CAP this report looks into the role of the Common Agricultural Policy in the so-called Multiannual Financial Framework for 2013-2020.

European Environment Agency “Distribution and targeting of the CAP budget from a biodiversity perspective”, 2009

CAP 2020 platform for commentary on the future development of the CAP

Defra CAP reform

Proposals for the CAP post-2013 by the RSPB and the CLA