COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION impact of the CAP on biodiversity, soil and water (natural resources)
Date: 2021-12-17
Institutions: Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission
Subjects: EU environmental policy, biodiversity, common agricultural policy, environmental impact, environmental protection, land use, management of resources, soil resources, water management in agriculture, water resources

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 17.12.2021  SWD(2021) 425 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  impact of the CAP on biodiversity, soil and water (natural resources) {SWD(2021) 424 final}  
 
 
The evaluation examined the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence, and EU added value of 
relevant  support  schemes  under  the  common  agricultural  policy  (CAP)  as  regards  their  impact  on 
biodiversity, soil and water.  

It  contributes  to  the  assessment  of  the  2014-20  CAP  regarding  its  general  objective  of  sustainably 
managing  natural  resources.  It  complements  parallel  evaluations  on  greening,  forestry  and  climate 
action1. 

The CAP provides EU added value by setting a higher level of ambition than might be available under 
a  purely  national  approach,  and  requiring  minimum  levels  of  financial  support,  and  supporting 
knowledge sharing across Member States. 

The relevance of the CAP’s objective to address sustainable management of natural resources has been 
important  throughout  the  observation  period,  with  available  indicators  pointing  toward  continued 
pressure on biodiversity, soil and water resources.  

The  evaluation  acknowledges  the  CAP’s  potential  to  effectively  address  sustainable  management 
objectives  by  providing  extensive  protection  through  mandatory  cross-compliance  (on  84%  of  the 
EU’s  utilised  agriculture  area  in  2019),  greening  obligations  (80%)  and  more  targeted  voluntary 
commitments under rural development support (15% for agri-environment-climate measures (AECM) 
and 5% for organic farming supported by the CAP).  

The CAP – in particular direct payments to farmers and support for areas facing natural constraints – 
can  prevent  land  abandonment  and  slow  down  specialisation  of  farming  systems,  helping  maintain 
diversified land use, farming and permanent grasslands.  

Nonetheless, implementation choices play a pivotal role and Member States declined to allocate more 
funding  to  the  most  targeted  measures  (including  AECM,  Natura 2000  and  conversion  to  organic 
farming),  and/or  chose  a  minimalistic  approach  for  certain  more  generalised  cross-compliance  and 
greening conditions. Nor did the overall policy design address certain pressures and needs sufficiently 
(e.g.  no  targeted  measures  for  soil  compaction,  soil  biodiversity  and  pollution).  As  a  result,  the 
potential of the CAP to contribute to sustainable practices was not fully exploited. 

The CAP instruments and measures with the greatest benefits for sustainable management (including 
cross-compliance)  have  the  greatest  administrative  cost,  but  are  deemed  proportionate  given  the 
inherent complexity of some of the management practices and/or in view of the benefits obtained.  

There  is  a  good  level  of  internal  and  external  coherence  between  the  CAP  schemes  and  measures 
addressing sustainable management, but a limited number of inconsistencies were identified (e.g. risk 
of direct payments facilitating intensification with resulting biodiversity impacts).  

The evaluation faced a number of inherent challenges and constraints, due to the limited availability of 
accurate,  detailed,  timely  and  homogenous  data,  the  narrow  observation  period  (given  the  slow, 
longer-term  nature  of  environmental  processes)  and  the  prevalence  of  external  factors  distorting  the 
precise identification of cause and effect for certain developments.  

The evaluation validates relevant policy elements proposed for the post-2020 CAP, including the need 
for a more strategic approach to improve targeting, consistency of approach and overall performance 
and improved funding and incentives to allow improving the impact of the CAP on natural resources, 
in line with the Green Deal ambition. 

1   SWD(2018)478, SWD(2019)389 and SWD(2021)115.