Clare Miller (RSPB) BirdLife International asks the Slovenian Presidency to pave the way for sustainable land management and rural development policy Zoom In

Slovenian EU Presidency needs to take the lead on new CAP

21-01-2008

Ahead of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council of this week, BirdLife International is calling on the Slovenian EU Presidency to show leadership on the CAP Health Check debate. In it’s publication “Greening Europe - priorities for the Slovenian Presidency”, BirdLife stresses that farmland biodiversity is facing a serious crisis in Europe while climate change is adding further pressure on the environment. At the same time, the wider EU Budget Review looms, calling into question EU expenditure on the CAP. BirdLife asks the Slovenian Presidency to show courage and use the Health Check as an opportunity to pave the way for a sustainable land management and rural development policy.

“Despite recent reforms, the CAP is still failing the environment, delivering too little funding to sustainable farming and wasting much of its budget on untargeted subsidies that are usually pocketed by the most intensive farming enterprises” said Marcus Gilleard, Coordinator of BirdLife’s European Agriculture Task Force.

A key issue for the Health Check is ensuring environmental quality across the farmed landscape, quality that is ever more threatened by intensification driven by high commodity prices and biofuels production. The EU is just three years away from missing its 2010 objective of halting biodiversity decline and climate change is forcing species to move in search of new habitats. European farmland therefore desperately needs more beneficial habitats. The current Commission proposal to abolish set aside, a scheme that has brought widespread accidental benefits to wildlife and water quality, goes completely against this need. BirdLife International therefore calls for a new Environmental Priority Areas (EPAs) instrument that would require 10% of every farm to be managed for the environment.

"Failure to push for real CAP reforms would be disastrous for wildlife and the environment across Europe, and undermine public support for the CAP" —Dr. Clairie Papazoglou, Head of BirdLife's European Division

Under the CAP, all farmers receiving subsidies must respect environmental legislation and some basic good practice rules such as not destroying hedgerows or taking measures to avoid soil erosion. To date, few countries enforce these requirements correctly but the Commission proposal is not offering any concrete improvements. It does propose that similar standards be set for water and climate change but gives too little detail of what the actual rules may be.

BirdLife on the other hand, is in favour of the idea of shifting funds from untargeted subsidies toward environmentally beneficial schemes such as agri-environment and support for High Nature Value farming systems. However the level of ambition in the current proposal is not nearly enough to address the EU’s pressing environmental problems and societal expectations about using taxpayers’ money to good effect.

In short, the CAP Health Check is a precious opportunity to address wildlife declines, water pollution, water shortages and climate change, which must not be missed.

“BirdLife has put forward a vision for the future of farming support based on the principle of using public funds to secure the delivery of public goods. The Presidency and other EU governments should heed these concerns and press forward with real reform. Failure to do so would be disastrous for wildlife and the environment across Europe, and undermine public support for the CAP”, concluded Dr. Clairie Papazoglou, Head of the European Division of BirdLife International.