Looking to the future: Learning the lessons from CAP greening  [PDF version]  

Debates will soon begin on the future of the CAP and the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). A timely new IEEP report, Learning the lessons from CAP greening, considers how to increase the CAP’s environmental added value and climate benefits, both through current greening measures and alternative options. 

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The time for debates on the future of the CAP and discussions over the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is fast approaching. After the first year of implementation, discussions have started already on reviewing the new greening measures in Pillar 1 and looking for ways to simplify the CAP’s operation, while continuing to deliver environmental and climate benefits across the farmed countryside. 

Set within this context – and the possibility that the new CAP greening measures may not bring about the widespread environmental benefits intended – IEEP has produced a report Learning the lessons from CAP greening. It considers a range of options to increase the environmental added value from these measures. Could more be delivered with a revised set of greening measures under Pillar 1? Could more be achieved for the environment if greening measures were implemented under Pillar 2, under a multi-annual, programmed system? Or is it time for a change in the overall architecture of the CAP, and what does this mean for future CAP reform?

Commissioned by the UK Land Use Policy Group (LUPG) in collaboration with ENCA-net, the report aims to stimulate debate on possible cost-effective ways to improve the level of environmental additionality from the current greening measures. It reviews the original rationale for greening Pillar 1 and describes the alterations made to the proposals during the negotiation process. It then provides an overview of the potential environmental impacts of these measures whilst highlighting some of the challenges involved in determining their environmental additionality. It concludes by offering some preliminary thoughts on a number of possible future options for greening, focussing on alternative means of delivering improved environmental management across the farmed countryside in the EU-28 and considering the environmental, administrative and political pros and cons of each option.  

The report was launched at an ENCA seminar Greening of CAP Pillar 1 payments – can it be done better and simpler?, held in Brussels on 20 April. The presentations and report from the seminar can be found here.

For further information, please contact Kaley Hart.