‘The European Union is going to have to do a lot more to make the CAP fit for the 21st century if it is to be capable of delivering real benefits for the countryside.’ This was the reaction today (Tuesday) of CPRE’s farming campaigner Ian Woodhurst to the proposals announced by the European Commission as part of its Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). CPRE welcomes the proposal to increase the amount of funding that will be transferred from farm payments across the EU to pay for rural development initiatives, including green farming schemes. However, CPRE remains concerned that not enough is being done to retain the environmental benefits of set aside which is to be abolished. Ian Woodhurst continued: ‘Over the years the public has paid a lot of money to farmers to leave land fallow, which it is now widely recognised has unintentionally benefited wildlife and added to the diversity of some landscapes. We are disappointed that the proposals from the Commission to retain these benefits are lacking in vision. If we are to take this as an indicator of the extent of the Commission’s ambition for the CAP then the opportunity to make it really deliver for the environment isn’t going to make it beyond the farm gate.’ Ian Woodhurst concluded: ‘The next major reforms of the CAP will be in 2013. By then the Governments of the EU must meet their responsibility to ensure the CAP is properly equipped with the measures and funding required to reward farmers for delivering a wide range of environmental benefits.’

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20 May 2008
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