CAP Strategic Plans: Lost in Details?

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After having scrutinised the inter-institutional negotiations and amendments to the 2018 European Commission proposal, another question emerged as result of our second-year project: Is the CAP reform now Lost in Details? Have the promises for a fairer and greener CAP been materialised in the EU legislations?

With this second report, we summarise the work that ARC2020 and many other committed people have done for the 2021 project CAP Strategic Plans, along with perspectives for 2022. With the CAP deal sealed at EU level, what happened to the so-called ‘enhanced conditionalities’? Are “eco-scheme” practices going to make a difference to the socio-ecological crisis of food systems? What does a long-term vision for rural areas mean concretely now when it comes to design and approve rural-proofed CAP Strategic Plans? Has the Common Market Organisation been aligned to the various Green Deal initiatives and concerns about unfair trade practices within the EU and with third countries’ producers?

This report is a one-stop shop, a collection of all relevant analyses that ARC2020 and friends have written along this long 2021 year of negotiations and consultations at European and national levels. The individual articles zoom into various details, such as the protection of third-countries quality schemes in the EU single market, or the policy enforcement of the Commission’s recommendations to the Member States’ CAP Strategic Plans.

Lost in Details is also a reminder about those small but important amendments that have been introduced and adopted precisely where the CAP reform was expected to make a difference – and where, by and large, CAP failed to deliver. Details can serve to drive large-scale changes but can also denature the original purpose of a reform. They will continue to multiply now that the reform needs to be translated into 28 National CAP Strategic Plans.

Download the report and access the rest of the introduction at the link below! This includes a detailed analysis of how one GAEC – Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition – on crop rotations has fared through the process, and how capping – i.e. putting a ceiling, or upper limit on – payments has fared throughout the CAP process from initial Commission Communication to today.

Download the project report