The CAP Health Check
In 2008 Fischer Boel carried out a review of the CAP, which was dubbed "Health Check". the CAP Health Check. The package of adjustments was agreed in November 2008 with the aim of keeping the CAP true to the spirit of the 2003 reforms in changing circumstances.
Under the health check, the EU's rural development policy was given a boost in order to help farms and other rural businesses respond to pressing challenges such as fighting and adjusting to climate change; managing water more carefully; providing and using renewable energy; conserving biodiversity and pursuing innovation in all of these areas.
In order to finance these new projects, a key element of the Health Check agreement is that, by 2012, EU farmers will be contributing an extra 5 per cent of their income support payments to rural development policy (through modulation), for use in projects to help address the concerns listed above. A further 4 per cent is being transferred annually from all income support payment amounts above a threshold of € 300 000. This finally establishes a "progressive" principle long supported by the public – namely, that farmers who receive high levels of income support from the EU budget should make larger "contributions" to projects of general public interest.
In order to make farming even more market-orientated, the Health Check is decoupling a greater share of farmers' income support payments.
The Health Check is also removing constraints on farmers’ freedom to produce more in response to market demand. The requirement to “set aside” a portion of their arable land is abolished, and milk production quotas are being enlarged to prepare for their removal in 2015.
Read more about this topic: Mariann Fischer Boel
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