AgriFood participate in dialogue meeting in Brussels

On the agenda was the European Commission's first draft for reforming the Common Agricultural Policy, The Future of Food and Farming, which was published in November. The background to AgriFood’s and CEC's invitation to participate is the recently published report Impacts of Direct Payments - Lessons for CAP Post-2020 from a quantitative analysis, which was presented at the meeting. The report analyzes the impacts of CAP on competitiveness and the environment.

- Our report sparked a lot of interest, in particular the analysis of which land would be abandoned without support and what policy instruments have greater potential to achieve CAP objectives. As a researcher in the field, it was also valuable to obtain insights into how communication between the Commission and agricultural stakeholders works. It is of course also our hope that our results will influence the reform.

AgriFood and CEC stand behind the content of the report, but it was partly funded from the World Wildlife Fund, which also contributed to getting the report on the agenda of the dialogue meeting. Jabier Ruiz Mirazo is the World Wildlife Fund’s representative in Brussels, and said after the meeting:

- The presentation of the Agrifood Research Centre report brought valuable scientific elements to a very politicised matter: CAP direct payments. If these payments are to continue in the future, all scientific evidence available suggests that they need to be seriously revised to increase their efficiency and better target them to the objectives they are meant to deliver, including creating public goods and increasing farm sustainability.