Update on CAP 2023-2027 Strategic Plans, Common Market Organisation & long-term vision for rural areas

Where are we at with the CAP 2023-2027 Strategic Plans and reform process? What do we do on the Common Market Organisation? What do we suggest for a long-term vision for rural areas? Let’s discover it in this article.

State of play of the CAP Strategic Plans
The European Commission sent all its Observation Letters to national governments on their CAP Strategic Plans. The governments are now reviewing their draft and sending it back to the Commission. The plans are supposed to be approved by the end of the summer / September 2022.

On 7 June 2022, IFOAM Organics Europe published a press release sharing our observations and raising our demands to Member States and the Commission on the review and approval of the CAP Strategic Plans. We called on:

• Member States to integrate the Commission’s observations to increase their support to organic farming; and
• The Commission to continue their dialogue with Member States to make sure they modify their plans to increase their interventions and budgets for organic and so, the overall environmental ambition before approving them.

Our members find a document gathering the Commission’s observations on organic farming, Farm to Fork’s targets, animal welfare and climate for all CAP Strategic Plans on our member extranet.

New initiative on the CAP 2023-2027 performance framework
We are also working on the Commission’s public consultation on a draft Implementing Regulation on the CAP 2023-2027 performance framework and data for monitoring and evaluation. The aim is to define the:

• Evaluation activities to assess the CAP,
• Data that EU countries must provide,
• Content in the evaluation plan.

This initiative is an opportunity for IFOAM Organics Europe and the organic movement to request data on organic farming and on the benefits of the CAP Strategic Plan’s interventions on the climate, environment, pesticide use and risk reduction, biodiversity and animal welfare to assess whether Member States increased their overall climate and environmental ambition as requested in the Implementing CAP Strategic Plans’ Article 105. We will share the feedback to this public consultation at the end of June. The deadline of the public consultation is 30 June.

The Common Market Organisation’s Article 210 on Sustainability Agreements: ongoing activities
As IFOAM Organics Europe, we provided feedback to the Commission’s public consultation on the sustainability agreements to welcome the initiative Article 210 has created. This article offers an opportunity to elaborate agreements across the whole value chain to ensure achieving environmental and animal welfare goals, while providing a minimum compensation remuneration to farmers. We believe it can be a game changer because it will incentivize farmers who already implement farming practices with high standards in terms of environment, animal welfare and biodiversity to continue doing so. Our members can read our feedback on our member extranet.

In this regard, our German member Bioland was showcased as case study for the sustainability agreement they are working on to define fair prices for producers in the dairy sector, during the European Network for Rural Development’s Thematic Group on Sustainability Agreements on 1 June. IFOAM Organics Europe and its French member INTERBIO Nouvelle-Aquitaine also participated.

Parliament’s report on the long-term vision for rural areas
On 29 April 2022, the European Parliament drafted its own initiative report on ‘the long-term Vision for the EU’s Rural Areas ‘Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040’ (2021/2254(INI)) to comment on the European Commission’s vision published on 30 June 2021 (COM(2021)0345).

The Rapporteur is S&D Member of the European Parliament Carvalhais for the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture (COMAGRI) and the Rapporteur for the opinion is EEP Member of the European Parliament Alvaro for the European Parliament’s Committee for Regional Development (REGI)).

IFOAM Organics Europe prepared suggestions of amendments to mention the Farm to Fork Strategy and organic farming as opportunities to have resilient rural areas and sustainable farming systems. We also suggested that the support to bio-districts is relevant as they represent a new rural development model based on a participatory approach, the preservation of agricultural landscape and biodiversity, the cultural heritage and gastronomy, related to organic agriculture and food production.

The deadline for amendments was 25 May. The next steps will consist of discussions and a vote in the COMAGRI, before a vote in Plenary foreseen in September 2022.

For more information on the CAP, the CMO, Rural Development and IFOAM Organics Europe’s work on this issue, please contact [email protected]. IFOAM Organics Europe members can find more information on the member extranet and background materials in the arguments database on the member extranet (main messages, FAQs, visuals & videos). Contact [email protected] for access rights (issues).

For information about what you can gain from being a member, read our membership page and contact [email protected].