The results of the consultation will feed into the Commission’s Impact Assessment and Communication on modernising and simplifying the CAP to be published by the Commission later in 2017. The Communication will assess the different options for possible policy developments. Legislative proposals are foreseen to follow by early 2018.
More than 322 900 answers were submitted in the future CAP public consultation from a wide range of stakeholders including farmers, citizens, organisations & other interested parties. Finally, after subtracting all generated responses by the ‘Living Land’ environmental movement, other public campaigns and duplicates, around 58 520 replies remained to be taken into consideration. For further analysis, the answers were categorised into following three groups: “Individual – involved in farming in agriculture and forestry”, “other citizens” and “organisations”.
The opinions differed partially strongly between these groups. Especially “tensions” between economic development, environmental protection and the future challenge on how to reach the two objectives simultaneously have been recognised. However, an overview of the findings also showed that stakeholders broadly agreed the CAP should do more on boosting investment, growth and employment, mitigating and adapting to climate change and strengthening the EU single market.
The public consultation contained one specific question on forestry, asking in which area the CAP should strengthen its support to sustainable forest management. The option most frequently selected by “farmers/foresters” and by “other citizens” differ. While for “farmers/foresters” the most popular answer was “Mobilisation of forest biomass for the production of material and energy”, it was the least popular for the group “other citizens”. This group most frequently selected “Increase of the resilience and protection of forest ecosystems”.
CEPF contributed to the public consultation to highlight in this context the importance of forestry and sustainable forest management in the CAP and its Rural Development Policy. CEPF is convinced that a stronger political recognition and integrity of the forestry sector in the future CAP is required. Sustainably managed forests not only deliver a multitude of benefits, both for rural areas and society at large, but also play a crucial role to deliver solutions to meet some of the most complex challenges facing society today, particularly with respect to the new international commitments on climate change and sustainable development. Please find the position paper below.
Please find more information and presentations about the conference on Commission’s website.
