Clare Miller (RSPB) The CAP Health Check fails to properly address upcoming challenges like climate change and the decline in biodiversity Zoom In

Latest proposals for CAP reform "fail the environment"

20-11-2007

Today the European Commission launched its plans for the 'Health Check' of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

BirdLife International has stated that these proposals fail to address the challenges of biodiversity decline, climate change and a gathering water crisis.

BirdLife had hoped the Commission would take this opportunity and use the Health Check to outline a long-term sustainable vision for European farming and management but while the Health Check acknowledges the environmental challenges facing farming, it proposes very little to address them. The failure to address the loss of set-aside for instance, will have serious impacts on wildlife and the environment in the coming years.

"Most devastating for the environment is the abolition of set-aside, which will damage wildlife precisely when climate change is adding pressure on weakened ecosystems." —Ariel Brunner, BirdLife's EU Agriculture Policy Officer

Despite recent reforms, the Common Agricultural Policy fails to see the protection of the environment as one of its top priorities and delivers too little funding to sustainable farming. Conversely, it wastes much of its budget on untargeted subsidies that are mostly pocketed by the most intensive farming enterprises.

Brunner concludes by saying that the Commission is "burying its head in the sand" and ignores the challenges that climate change and biodiversity decline pose to the CAP.

"Decision makers should wake up before it really is too late", he argues.