'Common Agricultural Policy payments and controls should be based on the final beneficiary' von Cramon MEP

MEPs voted on new rules governing the Common Agricultural Policy which accounts for roughly a third of the EU’s budget. Reforms are aimed at making the policy more sustainable were weakened by a series of amendments by the main political groups in the parliament.

European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski argued that the policy needed to provide economic, environmental and social benefits for Europe’s farmers and citizens. He regretted that MEPs were less ambitious than the Commission in aligning the policy with the green deal and also making it fairer.  

Viola von Cramon MEP (Green, DE) was critical of the agreements reached by the three main groups in the parliament - the European People’s Party, Social Democrats and Renew - for failing to grasp the opportunity to make reforms that would lead to a greener policy that would support biodiversity.  

Von Cramon also regrets that weak governance will result in the misuse of funds. A large proportion of CAP is spent on direct payments allocated on the basis of hectarage or the volume of livestock as the only conditions for receiving EU funds. She says that this has resulted in bad and sometimes criminal practices of land grabbing, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Another loophole she points to in CAP payments is the fact that subsidies are distributed ‘per farm’ where the final beneficiary of these subsidies may be one person - and not necessarily the person who is working the farm. For this reason, Von Cramon is convinced that the CAP payments and controls should be based on the ‘final beneficiary’ and that there should be a firm limit (capping) to the maximum amount of annual subsidies a single final beneficiary could receive.

Overall, she argues that there is a need for tighter controls on spending, under both pillars (direct payment and rural development).  

Von Cramon says that by continuing to support crops grown per hectare the EU’s flagship agricultural policy is killing biodiversity and is distancing the EU from its green goals and commitments in the Paris Climate Agreement. Van Cramon is one among many voices saying that it is high time that the EU should break with the old practices of strong support to the big multinational agri-producers and reintroduce small and medium organic farmers and allow the soil and nature to regain some of its lost strength.

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