L’avenir de la politique agricole commune

- points out that the new CAP delivery model has led to an increase in administrative burden for the regional managing authorities, a lack of flexibility to adapt the CAP Strategic Plan to regional needs and some delays in the implementation of the policy. Therefore, calls on the European Commission to grant greater powers to regions in the CAP after 2027. The CAP should be decentralised and implemented based on regional strategies for food security and rural development;

- recommends, in order to ensure fair incomes for farmers and generational renewal, that direct payments shift from a surface-based approach to a system combining multiple factors: labour intensity, farm size, owner type (supporting in particular young farmers), agricultural added value, areas in which climate change adaptation measures are carried out and areas in which sustainable agriculture is practiced. This shift must be gradual, so that farmers can adapt to the new rules;

- supports market regulation mechanisms both internally and externally to avoid speculation and stabilise market prices such as public stocks, supply control mechanisms, complementing direct payments with countercyclical subsidies in order to stabilise farmers’ income in a context of unpredictable crises, flexibility of biofuel policies, ensuring fair competition in the agri-food sectors, the application of new fair principles of importing and exporting agricultural and food products like the implementation of ‘mirror clauses’ in current and future European trade agreements;

- points out that the CAP should support mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, preservation of high nature value systems and the fight against the sources of environmental pollution, as well as ensuring proper welfare of livestock. Therefore, the budget of the CAP post 2027 should match the needs of the sector and the level of ambition with the primary aim of guaranteeing food security in light of the changed geopolitical context. Farmers must be supported adequately in the transition to sustainable farming and therefore the CAP budget for greening should be supplemented by additional resources.