Home

PURPLE Secretary General Vincent O’Connell today attended the 8^th General Assembly of the European Network for Rural Development – one day after the legal texts setting out the next steps of CAP Reform were published in the Official Journal (OJEU).

DG AGRI Director-General, Wolfgang Burtscher, gave what was essentially a review of 2021 looking back over a year which saw agreement and adoption of the new CAP, much work done on the establishment of CAP National Strategic Plans (NSPs), publication of the Long Term Vision for Rural Areas (LTVRA), and considerable work and progress on implementing the agriculture and rural development related elements of the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 (BDS) and Farm2Fork.

Burtscher allowed that for many, the latest CAP reforms place too much constraint upon farmers, whilst at the same time many others feel that it does not go far enough in meeting environmental and climate challenges. His own view is that we have arrived at a reasonable and balanced compromise, but one that is critically related to the success of NSPs going forward.

With all NSPs due to be submitted by the end of this year (and with confidence that all secondary legislation relating to the new CAP will be in place by then), and then finalised and approved by the end of 2022, this is a challenging process. With initial EC observations due by 01/04/22, there will then be a further nine months to address issues and agree everything, a process which is intended to involve a wide range of stakeholders and to be transparent, and will include assessments of complementarity and synergy with the content of National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) and ESIF Operational Programmes.