Information measures relating to the Common Agricultural Policy

Topic description

Scope:

1. Background

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the EU's most important policies. It is a partnership between agriculture and society and between Europe and its farmers. It is a common policy for all the countries and citizens of the EU and benefits them in various ways.

It supports farmers and improves agricultural production, maintains rural areas and landscapes, keeps the rural economy alive and helps tackle climate change and the sustainable management of natural resources.

The Information Measures Relating to the Common Agricultural Policy Programme supports the CAP by funding measures that provide information about it.

2. Objectives — Themes & priorities — Target public

Objectives

The general objective of the call is to build trust within the EU and amongst all citizens, farmers and non-farmers alike. The common agricultural policy (CAP) is a policy for all the citizens of the EU and the benefits that it provides to them must be clearly demonstrated.

The key issues and messaging should be fully consistent with the Commission's legal requirement to carry out information measures on the CAP within the meaning of Article 45 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.

The proposals submitted shall provide coherent, objective and comprehensive information, both inside and outside the Union, in order to give an accurate overall picture of the CAP.

The focus should be on addressing misperceptions and disinformation about European agriculture and the CAP using facts and backed up with data with a view to raising public awareness on the relevance of EU support to agriculture and rural development through the CAP.

Themes

The CAP plays a key role in supporting the EU’s farming sector and rural areas. It aims to ensure a sustainable agriculture with respect to economic, social and environmental aspects.

The proposals for information measures shall focus on illustrating how the future CAP as set out in particular in the CAP strategic plan proposal^[1] will contribute towards the delivery of the Commission’s political priorities, in particular the European Green Deal^[2]. In the framework of the European Green Deal, the Commission adopted a Farm to Fork strategy^[3] and the Biodiversity Strategy^[4] for 2030, both of which address issues relevant to agriculture and rural areas.

The Farm to Fork strategy will enable the transition to a sustainable EU food system that safeguards food security, reduces the environmental and climate footprint of the EU food system and strengthens its resilience, protecting citizens' health and ensuring the livelihoods of economic operators. The strategy sets concrete targets to transform the EUs food system and proposes ambitious measures to ensure that the healthy option is the easiest for EU citizens, including improved labelling to better meet consumers' information needs on healthy, sustainable foods. The biodiversity strategy as it relates to farming promotes the uptake of agro-ecological practices and seeks to increase agricultural land dedicated to organic farming.

The future CAP will be an important instrument in managing the transition to sustainable food production systems and in strengthening the efforts of European farmers to contribute to the climate objectives of the EU and to protect the environment, as well as reaching the targets set out in the farm-to-fork and the biodiversity strategies.

Target public

The target public for the themes is the general public (in particular young people in urban areas) and/or farmers and other parties active in rural areas.

More specifically:

• For school children, teachers and university students: novel approaches should be used to engage with young people and raise their awareness of the CAP and the contribution that it makes in many areas such as the climate change challenge, food, healthy and high quality eating as a lifestyle choice, in relation also with the EU School Scheme for Milk, Fruit and Vegetables^[5] and the Tartu Call^[6].
• For stakeholders: stakeholders should be more aware of the contribution that the CAP makes to the support of sustainability of agriculture.

[1] COM(2018)392 final ; factsheet: How the future CAP will contribute to the EU Green Deal, SWD(2020) 93 final

[2] COM(2019) 640 final

[3] COM(2020) 381 final

[4] COM/2020/380 final

[5]Regulation (EU) 2016/791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 amending Regulations (EU) No 1308/2013 and (EU) No 1306/2013 as regards the aid scheme for the supply of fruit and vegetables, bananas and milk in educational establishments.

[6] The Tartu Call is designed to promote and support healthier lifestyles for European citizens of all ages. With a special emphasis on the young generation: Children who learn healthy habits are more likely to maintain them in later life.