The Coalition brings together 336 organizations from all over Europe to demand that the EC does not make the CAP more flexible.
Last week, the European Commission (EC) and the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the Union jointly announced an agreement to lower the ambition of the green architecture of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). If this roadmap is implemented, key clauses that until now have conditioned access to public aid to agricultural practices that contribute to the sustainability of the agri-food sector will disappear. For this reason, 336 civil society organizations from all over Europe, representing producers, consumers, environmentalists and experts in health and nutrition, have sent a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The aim of the letter is to express the urgency of supporting EU regulations – and not repealing or relaxing them – that support a just transition to truly resilient agricultural models and protect the basis of their productivity, which is none other than water, soil and biodiversity. “Political action must abandon the false dichotomy of ecology versus economy because the environment depends on agriculture, as much as agriculture depends on the environment,” argue sources from the Coalition For Another CAP. The Coalition has been the promoter of this letter, which also denounces the lack of transparency and public participation in the preparation of the measures presented by the EC. Specifically, it refers to its proposal to transform four of the ten Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC) – 1, 6, 7, 8 – of the CAP into eco-regimes, which are voluntary. “If the EC proposals are implemented, the environmental and climate ambition promised for the new CAP will decrease, making it difficult to achieve key objectives, such as the protection of natural resources and biodiversity, or the fight against climate change,” say representatives of the Coalition for Another CAP. And it continues: “instead of advancing, it would represent a step backwards compared to the previous period, which failed to stop the decline of biodiversity, the basis of agricultural productivity”. “If we really consider the agricultural sector as strategic, we must make it resilient to challenges such as climate change and market volatility. To this end, the institutions must guarantee sufficient support to farms that are already producing – or want to start doing so – in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way”, expressed from Por Otra PAC. Another of the joint proposals of the EC and the Belgian Presidency of the Council after the AGRIFISH of February 26 was the reduction of inspections to a large part of the farms applying for public aid. “The possibility that farmers will not be controlled on the cross-compliance requirements of the CAP is very worrying because respecting the basic standards proposed by GAEC is key to move towards a more resilient, healthy and sustainable model of agricultural production.”, say sources of Por Otra PAC. “The Commission is rushing to dismantle cross-compliance requirements that promote agricultural practices backed by unequivocal scientific evidence, essential to address current climate, environmental and biodiversity problems and which are also vital for the viability of farms as they contribute to soil fertility or pest control, among others “, emphasize the signatories.
In addition, they add that “the trickle of changes in a CAP that has barely been implemented, only generates confusion and even legal uncertainty for those who have to adopt them, that is, the agricultural sector”. “The protests of farmers should not be used as an excuse to relax the green architecture of the CAP, making environmental standards scapegoats to avoid addressing the underlying problem, which is the lack of social and economic sustainability in the current agricultural system”, emphasize the representatives of the Coalition. The letter calls on the European Commission, instead of ending cross-compliance requirements, to focus on measures that provide a fair income for farmers and livestock farmers, and to rethink funding to facilitate an agroecological and just transition. Leaving no one behind. The Coalition For Another CAP urges the Commission to abandon plans to dismantle the CAP’s green architecture and present a credible plan to address the problems facing farmers and society as a whole. The letter calls on the Commission, in the policy-making process, to adopt an approach based on scientific evidence and consistent with the EU’s commitments to biodiversity and climate emergency, as well as with the objectives of the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and the Farm to Fork Strategy derived from the European Green Pact.
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