Posted on May, 06 2021

Based on the latest information available after the trilogue of 30 April, the assessment covers a total of 60 items with social, climatic and environmental relevance for the future Common Agricultural Policy, focusing on those aspects where the diverging positions of the Council and the Parliament have given some hope for the trilogues to secure the best of the options available. It must be noted, however, that in most cases the best option is far from ideal from an environmental perspective, and sometimes is just the continuation of existing rules.

Published just a few weeks before the conclusion of the CAP trilogues, the assessment shows that the well intended amendments that could have brought the farming policy somewhat closer to the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork ambitions and were mostly proposed by the Parliament have received very strong pushback, typically from both the Council and the Commission.

According to the assessment, over half of the improvements to the environmental provisions (52%) are at risk or high risk of being dropped by the negotiators; 11 (18%) have already been scrapped and 11 secured.

Jabier Ruiz, Senior Policy Officer for Agriculture at the WWF European Policy Office, said: 
“The Parliament risks coming out of the trilogues almost empty handed, while the Commission will be heavily criticised for not helping to achieve a better deal. But it is the Council that is emerging as the main antihero, satisfied with having managed to get most of its positions through, and making the whole environmental credibility of the CAP rely on the details of the national strategic plans, which agriculture ministers get to control and negotiate with too little EU oversight.”

The overall result of the assessment is summarised in the following graph:



Contact:
Jabier Ruiz
jruiz@wwf.eu
Senior Policy Officer, Agriculture & Food Systems
WWF European Policy Office

Bartosz Brzezinski
bbrzezinski@wwf.eu
Communications Officer
WWF European Policy Office
Tel: +32 484 28 15 10