The provisional political agreement reached on 25th June 2021 by the European Parliament and Council on the new Common Agricultural Policy introduces a fairer, greener, more flexible and technology friendly CAP. Higher environmental and climate ambitions, aligned with Green Deal objectives, are to be implemented from January 2023.

A fairer CAP will include social conditionality, meaning that CAP beneficiaries will have to respect elements of European social and labour law to receive CAP funds. New additions are also mandatory redistribution of income support (at least 10% to the benefit of smaller farms) and support for young farmers with minimum level of 3% of Member States’ budgets for CAP income support.

On the other hand, the greener CAP will enable consistency with the European Green Deal via implementation through the National Strategic Plans in line with the Green Deal and its Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies. It also introduces new, more ambitious tools such as conditionality (the minimum requirements CAP beneficiaries have to comply with to receive support) and EcoShemes (rewards for farmers for implementing climate and environmentally friendly practices) that will enable a more efficient and better-targeted environmental, climate and animal welfare performance.

Moreover, a more flexible CAP means simpler rules at EU level and a new way of working, where each Member State will draft a national CAP strategic plan describing how the CAP objectives as well as and Green Deal objectives as described in the Farm to Fork, and Biodiversity Strategies will be achieved.

Last, but not least, CAP puts at the forefront modern technologies to be used when carrying out checks for area-based CAP payments, which means an unprecedent potential for all NIVA developed innovations! Let’s go!