Ref. Ares(2016)2128933 - 04/05/2016
Ref. Ares(2016)5579867 - 27/09/2016
Phil Hogan
Brussels, May 4th 2016
Member of the European Commission
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium
Re:
Request for a meeting with environmental NGOs on the future of the Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP)
Dear Commissioner Hogan,
We would like to request a meeting with you to discuss the future of the Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP).
We took note with great interest of your speech at the Forum for the Future of Agriculture (FFA) and
in particular your remarks concerning the new CAP’s potential to improve the environmental
performance of EU agriculture and to contribute to the provision of public goods not remunerated
by the markets.
We are considerably less optimistic on this point. A number of studies on greening, including studies
we have commissioned ourselves, point in the opposite direction and rather indicate that the
greening is set to fail for the environment1
As you know, recently over 100 organisations, including BirdLife and the EEB, sent to President
Juncker a request for a fundamental debate about the policy according to the Fitness Check
principles of effectiveness, efficiency, EU value added, relevance and coherence2. This request was
then backed by leading representatives of the scientific community on 5 April 20163. You responded
that you were open to the debate, which we would now like to take up with you in person.
In the light of the declining state of the natural resources upon which agriculture depends and the
growing evidence that the CAP as it stands will not tackle it properly, as well as evidence on its
incoherence with other EU objectives on e.g. development and public health, the time has come to
start asking the fundamental questions. Moreover, the fact that an increasing number of
governments are facing severe budget constraints and that rising levels of Euroscepticism are
1 http://www.eeb.org/index.cfm?LinkServID=B3A6C7B6-5056-B741-DBCBAF77DC0F2E35
http://www.eeb.org/index.cfm/news-events/news/new-rural-development-plans-and-the-environment-the-
hidden-truth/ and https://slakner.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/greening-of-direct-payments-first-preliminary-
figures-on-the-eu-level/
2 http://www.eeb.org/index.cfm/news-events/news/ngos-call-for-major-review-of-eu-food-and-farming-policy/
3 http://www.ipes-food.org/images/Reports/OpenLetter_web_CommonFoodPolicy.pdf
challenging the future of the EU, we need to verify whether it is good value for money and whether
it fulfils the objectives it sets for all EU citizens. This challenge cannot be addressed by a limited
exercise, such as the previous round of reform, nor with the foreseen marginal changes to its
‘greening’ component within the simplification exercise. Such an exercise will set the scene for a
broad debate, based on evidence and facts on how a future EU policy should take shape in the field
of agriculture, food, health and environment that is fit to help Europe tackle the many challenges it
is facing.
We would welcome the opportunity for a meeting to exchange views on this topic.
Yours sincerely,
,