However, the information shared and analysed in this report is based on draft CSPs, which are highly likely to still change before their formal submission to the Commission. This report is the first attempt to catalogue and assess eco-schemes from across the EU (covering 21 Member States), and therefore offers ground-breaking insights into how approximately €48.5 bn of EU funding will be spent over 5 years in the post-2022 CAP. Yet, to date, very little is known on how EU countries will use this new policy instrument in their CSPs. Rather than using CAP direct payments to farmers as just income support, the aim of eco-schemes is to reward those farmers who manage land in a nature- and climate-friendly way, and to incentivise the adoption of specific farming practices with higher environmental and animal welfare benefits. These schemes for the climate, the environment and animal welfare will be fully funded by the EU and take the form of yearly payments to farmers who voluntarily enrol. In light of the European Green Deal, many expectations for a greener CAP have been pinned on eco-schemes.Įco-schemes are one of the very few novel instruments available in the toolbox of the future Common Agricultural Policy.
The two most important changes in this new CAP are the shift to implementation through national CAP Strategic Plans (CSPs), which are being prepared by EU countries and due for submission to the Commission by 1 January 2022, and the addition of a new form of direct payments for environmental-friendly farming: the eco-schemes. A reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will enter into force in 2023.
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