Agriculture

What is the EU doing?

Agricultural Policy is one of the oldest and most debated Common European Policies. Originally created to secure a sufficient supply of cheap food for post war Europe it soon became a victim of its own success creating massive surpluses. It also created a massive incentive for farmers to turn to the most resource and energy intensive farming practices - which became a major driver of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss.

Despite a series of reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) started in the 1990s, the CAP has still failed to create incentives for farmers to become more sustainable. With the EU preparing its budget for the period 2013-2020 another opportunity presents itself for CAP reform.  This is especially important becuase the CAP budget represents 40% of the total EU budget.

Thanks to years of campaigning by a group of journalists, researchers and NGOs the EU’s transparency rules where changed in 2007. This made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to find out who receives what from the CAP. Searches can be carried out at: www.farmsubsidy.org and through the portal at the European Commission with links to national websites: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/funding/index_en.htm

Link to the Commission website on the CAP :
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/cap-post-2013/index_en.htm

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