CAP: Brussels validates France’s new agricultural plan

French agriculture will be greener. The European Commission has validated the national plan for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) proposed by Paris for the next five years (2023-2027), which will allow it to receive 8.7 billion in European aid per year. The European executive had criticized France for “too low a level of environmental and climate ambition” when it presented its project in December. Since Russia declared war on Ukraine completely disrupting agricultural flows and EU supply sources .

Faced with this situation, Brussels has asked the Member States to review their agricultural strategic plans and to “exploit all the possibilities which strengthen the resilience of the sector”. While doing what is necessary to transform their production methods so that they are more sustainable and to reduce their dependence on synthetic fertilizers. A complex mission, not devoid of contradictions.

Leap in organic aid

The new CAP, as voted by the European Parliament and by the Member States, plans to grant aid to farmers who take part in more demanding environmental programmes, who use more ecological techniques and who undertake to improve animal welfare. EU member countries will have to devote a quarter of direct aid to agriculture to these “eco-schemes” from 2023.

France’s project had been deemed ecologically inadequate. Brussels had in particular been very fussy about the aid it wanted to grant to farms classified as “High environmental value”, considering that this risked harming organic farmers, subject to much more restrictive specifications .

In light of the remarks, France amended its plan. Among other measures, it plans to double the agricultural area devoted to organic farming to reach 18% of the total UAA. Support for conversion to organic farming is increased by 90 million euros and will reach 340 million per year.

More than 86% of the national agricultural area will comply with measures such as grass strips along watercourses, the maintenance of permanent grasslands, considered as carbon traps, or even the preservation of a minimum soil cover during sensitive periods. Increased support will be paid to farmers who make efforts to limit soil erosion or diversify crops so as not to exhaust the land. This concerns 74% of the surface. The national plan also plans to reward giving up pesticides adaptation of fertilization and grazing management.

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