By Julia Payne
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Court of Auditors reviewed the EU’s reform of agriculture subsidies and found a “noticeable gap” between farming incentives and the EU’s overall green targets, the ECA said in a report on Monday.
European Union farming subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are revised periodically and were so again in 2021 after the EU Green Deal was announced to help the bloc meet its targets to tackle climate change.
A key ECA finding is that the European Commission will not be able to measure the contribution of agriculture to its climate goals based on the hodge podge of metrics and incentives in place in the CAP, worth 378.5 billion euros ($423.62 billion) – or just under a third of the EU’s total 2021-27 budget.
The EU has said the CAP will be a key tool in tackling climate change as agriculture represents 13% of the 27-nation bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions with more than half emitted by livestock.
“Our examination of the Commission’s assessment of how the (member state) plans are aligned with the 2030 Green Deal targets reveals that the Commission cannot – except for organic farming – measure the extent of their contribution, and so cannot check whether they align with targets,” the ECA concluded.
Some of the climate-friendly funding rules were also watered down in response to farmer protests early this year, it noted.
The EU’s ombudsman began an inquiry this month into whether the Commission breached its own rules by changing CAP funding terms after a complaint was filed by environmental activist group ClientEarth and others. ClientEarth is also suing Germany for not enforcing EU pesticide rules.
However, the ECA found the EU’s climate goals have not been integrated into CAP legislation and important result indicators are missing and vary too greatly to show any achievements, given that definitions and methods differ among member states.
“Our analysis shows that the achievement of Green Deal targets largely depends on actions planned outside the CAP,” the report said.
Significant exemptions are also in place this year to help placate restive farmers, such as the removal of requirements on the minimum part of arable land to be left fallow, and options to avoid crop rotation with more diversification.
Finally, the Commission did not request member states to include targets or estimate contributions to the Green Deal targets from their CAP planning.
“Four member states in our sample cited issues such as a lack of common definitions and methods for making such estimates,” the report showed.
($1 = 0.8935 euros)
(Reporting by Julia Payne; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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