Written answers

Thursday, 15 July 2021

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Common Agricultural Policy

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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49. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outline the climate mitigation measures agreed under the recent CAP agreement. [38490/21]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The new CAP will have an increased focus on environmental matters. The agreement sets out a number of measures aimed at encouraging farmers to adopt climate and environment-friendly farming practices, including:

- Ring-fencing of 25% of Member States’ direct payments envelopes for new eco-schemes under Pillar I. There are some flexibilities in place for Member States including a two-year learning period in 2023 and 2024 to minimise the risk of loss of unspent funds, and a ‘Rebate’ system which recognises Member States expenditure on climate, environmental and animal welfare objectives under Pillar II of the CAP.

- A new enhanced system of conditionality (cross compliance) will apply to all farmers in receipt of CAP payments. This system introduces a new standard for Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC II) for wetland and peatland protection. Conditionality will also incorporate most of the current “greening” requirements.

- 35% of Pillar II payments must be targeted at environmental actions.

The agreement also provides Member States with the flexibilities required to implement the CAP in a way that best suits their national circumstances. Achieving this flexibility was one of my key objectives. It can be used as effectively and as fairly as possible to ensure that our CAP Strategic Plan is designed in such a way that it secures a sustainable future for Irish agriculture on all levels - economic, environmental and social.

While political agreement has been reached, further work remains on certain technical details of the proposed reform. Legal texts will be prepared by the European Commission and are expected to be presented to the Council and the European Parliament in due course for formal agreement.

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