On 1 June 2018 the Commission presented a single legal proposal for the future CAP: “Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the Common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
The emphasis of the new Proposal, as outlined in the November 2017 Communication on the Future of Food and Farming, was on simplification, targeted action and giving Member State (MS) greater flexibility in tailoring financing under the CAP. The impetus for the revised CAP was the argument that the current CAP delivery system relied on detailed requirements at EU level, with too prescriptive rules that were not always suitable to deliver the desired results and EU added value. To this end, the CAP proposal called for MS to develop a singular CAP Strategic Plan (with room for regional plans) that covered both direct payments (Pillar 1) and rural development payments (Pillar 2).
The proposal introduced a number of new elements, e.g. the eco-schemes and sectoral interventions under Pillar 1 and streamlines the measures under the rural development interventions. A detailed analysis of each element is presented in the table below. This document presents a first assessment of the CAP proposal in terms of its contribution to achieving water resource protection and promoting adaptation to climate change. The document is split into three sections: 1) a summary highlighting the budgetary changes and brief conclusions on how the CAP proposal address environmental objectives in general and water management and adaptation to climate change, specifically; 2) a brief summary of the on-going discussions in the Agriculture and Fisheries Council; and 3) an analysis of the CAP proposal per article. The full text can be found here.
