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Simplification and Modernisation of the Common Agricultural Policy

Overall state of play:

Communication on the Future of Food and Farming adopted on 29/11/2017 (COM(2017)713)
Commission proposals: adopted by the Commission on 01/06/2018:
• COM(2018)392
• COM(2018)393
• COM(2018)394
LegalActs: adopted in December 2021:
• Regulation (EU) No 2021/2115 (CAP Strategic Plan Regulation)
• Regulation (EU) No 2021/2116 (CAP “Horizontal” Regulation)
• Regulation (EU) No 2021/2117 (Amendment to Common Market Organisation Regulation)

Summary

In 2017, the Commission launched an exercise aimed at the simplification and modernisation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with a view to maximising its contribution to the Commission's ten priorities and to the Sustainable Development Goals.

This work took account of the relevant opinions of the REFIT Platform. A major part of it focused on assessing the performance and challenges with a strong focus on excessive complexity and regulatory burden of all kinds, identifying the elements of the CAP delivering on the objectives and identifying where there are problems or gaps.

In light of the above, the Commission undertook numerous discussions in various fora as well as an extensive public consultation carried out between February and May 2017. The results of the open public consultation are available on the following website: https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/consultations/cap-modernising/2017_en.

The results of the above work fed into a Communication on the future of food and farming adopted by the Commission on 29 November 2017 and subsequently fed into the Commission proposals on the CAP post-2020. The proposals, adopted on 01 June 2018, refer to the CAP Strategic Plans to be drawn up by Member States, the financing, management and monitoring of the CAP and certain aspects of the common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and quality schemes. The main feature of this CAP reform proposal as far as simplification is concerned is the introduction of a result-based delivery system that will create significant opportunities for simplification and efficiency gains at every management level.

In December 2021, the European Parliament and the Council formally adopted the new CAP regulations for the period 2023-20271. The co-legislators agreed on a new design for the CAP, largely based on the 2018 Commission proposals to simplify and modernise the policy to better respond to the emerging economic, environmental and social challenges.

REFIT Platform

Since 2016, the REFIT Platform issued 11 Opinions related to agriculture, most of which refer to the Common Agricultural Policy. The REFIT Platform Stakeholder group recommended amongst others to carry out a more strategic review of the CAP with a view to ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of the CAP, while the Government group objected to such a review and, instead recommended to follow the existing evaluation planning established by Regulation 1306/2013.

Estimated savings and benefits

The impact assessment accompanying the legislative proposals quantified the estimated benefits in terms of reduction of administrative burden. Depending on the option examined in the impact assessment, the potential for administrative burden reduction for national administrations ranges between 5 and 8%, whereas it varies between 5 and 11% for individual beneficiaries. This translates into a cost reduction of €160 million to €240 million for administrations and €170 million to €410 million for individual beneficiaries. The greater effectiveness under increased subsidiarity and a shift from compliance to performance will lead to a higher administrative efficiency (value for money).

1 Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, Regulation (EU) 2021/2116, Regulation (EU) 2021/2117