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SPIEGEL: Mr Häusling, the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, has set the course for an ambitious greening of the EU with her Green Deal. How are these objectives reflected in the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that is currently being adopted?
Häusling: No way. On the contrary: everything indicates that the current CAP will be even less sustainable than the current one. Rather than ultimately tying direct payments to farmers’ environmental services, 60 percent of the € 387 billion budget until almost 2027 is paid solely for land ownership. Most environmental services should not be mandatory, but will remain largely voluntary. I see this as taxpayer fraud.
SPIEGEL: Doesn’t the new proposal have to be based on the new ecological targets declared by the Commission?
Häusling: Ms. Von der Leyen and her Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski did not submit a new and revised proposal. We are voting on the old one drawn up by the then Commissioner before the Green Deal. That’s absurd.
