CAP Reform Proposals

Risk management tools should replace Direct Payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the next reform round.  This is the finding of a study commissioned by the European Parliament into the potential of ‘income stabilisation’ tools such as insurance schemes, mutual funds or savings accounts.  The report suggests that Direct Payments like the BPS should be gradually phased-out to help fund these alternative approaches.  The full report can be found at – http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/573415/IPOL_STU(2016)573415_EN.pdf.  There is no guarantee that any such policy will be adopted of course – there is a large degree of inertia in CAP policy and making radical changes is difficult.  It does though show that policy-makers are already thinking about what comes after the BPS in 2020 and are engaging in a bit of ‘blue sky thinking’.