Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.Luxembourg (dpa) – Agricultural plans drawn up by EU countries to access the bloc’s massive subsidies are not climate friendly enough and do not adequately protect the environment, top policy auditors warned on Monday.
The “green design” of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is better, said Nikolaos Milionis, the lead auditor of the investigation said in a statement. “However, compared with the past, we haven’t seen substantial differences in the member states’ agricultural plans,” he added.
Totalling 378.5 billion Euro, CAP is worth nearly a third of the EU budget and is meant to support farmers’ incomes and safeguard the bloc’s food supplies.
CAP is also meant to protect the environment with funding conditions. The agricultural subsidies policy gives EU member states different options to meet the bloc’s environmental and climate change objectives.
ECA: EU countries use exemptions to conditions
However, investigators from the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that all EU countries used “exemptions to agricultural and environmental conditions.”
The ECA also found that some EU countries “reduced or delayed the application of the green measures that are required for obtaining EU money.”
“There is a noticeable gap between the EU’s environmental and climate targets and the agricultural plans drawn up by EU countries,” the ECA said.
After massive EU farmer protests against bureaucracy and falling incomes, the European Commission responded by further relaxing certain requirements such as those related to crop rotation to access subsidies.
The ECA highlighted that this move to pacify farmers risks impacting CAP’s environmental objectives further. Also lacking were measures to monitor carbon emission reductions.
Milionis said that “the EU’s ambitions for the climate and the environment are not matched at national level.”
While EU countries complied with CAP requirements to set aside a minimum amount of funds for “environmental and climate measures,” auditors concluded that CAP plans are “not substantially greener.” (30 September)
The editorial responsibility for the publication lies with dpa.