European Parliament shows lack of ambition in giving the CAP a new direction - but there may be a glimmer of hope for biodiversity...

14-03-2008

This week the European Parliament has adopted the resolution on the CAP Health Check – known as the ‘Goepel report’ [1]. BirdLife International [2] deeply regrets the outcome of this vote, as it fails to offer credible solutions which address the pressing environmental challenges faced by Europe’s countryside. However, BirdLife welcomes Parliament’s call to tackle the environmental problems caused by the loss of set-aside. BirdLife wants the European Parliament to show more courage in calling for the CAP to become a sustainable policy which rewards farmers for the delivery of public goods.

“The European Parliament today called clearly for non-reform of the CAP, preferring instead to stick with the ‘business as usual’ approach by watering down an already weak Commission proposal." —Dr Clairie Papazoglou, Director of BirdLife’s European Division

Dr Clairie Papazoglou, Director of BirdLife’s European Division commented: “The European Parliament today called clearly for non-reform of the CAP, preferring instead to stick with the ‘business as usual’ approach by watering down an already weak Commission proposal."

In its proposal for the CAP Health Check, the Commission had presented the idea of focussing more funds from untargeted subsidies towards environmentally beneficial schemes, such as agri-environment and support for High Nature Value farming systems. The European Parliament came forward with a new concept that would result in a significant reduction in the amount of money transferred. This fails to redress current spending patterns, which are skewed in favour of the most competitive farmers. We believe that farmers who deliver environmental benefits to society, but struggle to compete on the market, need to be better rewarded.

This resolution on the CAP Health Check pays insufficient attention to the fact that the Commission’s Green paper acknowledged that biodiversity loss and climate change are amongst the key ‘challenges’ to be addressed by the CAP. This represents a missed opportunity.

The EU is just three years away from missing its 2010 objective of halting biodiversity decline. Climate change is now exacerbating the situation by forcing species to move in search of new habitats. European farmland desperately needs more beneficial habitats to address the loss of set-aside - a scheme that has brought widespread benefits to wildlife and water quality.

BirdLife welcomes the fact that the European Parliament calls for introducing an obligation for all farmers to facilitate the development of biodiversity and valuable habitats through changes in the definition of cross-compliance. The introduction of such provisions, in combination with voluntary measures such as agri-environment, would be an important step to secure a home for European farmland wildlife.

ENDS

More information:

Herlinde Herpoel, Media & Communication Officer BirdLife European Division, Brussels, Herlinde.herpoel@birdlife.org, +32 494 542 844

Marcus Gilleard, BirdLife European Agriculture Task Force Coordinator, RSPB (BirdLife UK), Marcus.gilleard@rspb.org.uk, +44 1767 69 32 74

Notes for the editor:

[1] The on-going “Health Check” was decided within the context of the 2003 CAP reform. A period of consultation now follows with a final proposal likely in spring 2008. The European Parliament, under the leadership of German conservative Lutz Goepel, prepared a report responding to the Commission Green Paper seeking to inform the legislative proposal. Reforms will be adopted in about one years time. The wider, more long-term EU Budget Review (which started at the end of 2006 with a Commission consultation) is likely to lead to further, more radical reforms to the CAP.

[2] BirdLife International is a global alliance of conservation NGOs working in more than 100 countries and territories that, together, are the leading authority on the status of birds, their habitats and the issues and problems affecting them. More information at: http://europe.birdlife.org

For BirdLife’s full Health Check proposals, see our website at the following page: http://www.birdlife.org/action/campaigns/farming_for_life/index.html

“New Challenges, new CAP” is BirdLife’s vision for how the CAP can adapt and tackle new challenges in the run up to the CAP Health Check and the EU Budget Review, which together form an unprecedented opportunity to reform and modernise the CAP. It can be downloaded by following this link: http://capvision.birdlife.org

Credits: Herlinde Herpoel