[ad_1]
Environmentalists criticize the fact that only 20 percent of planned spending under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) flows towards climate-friendly policies.
With its decision, eleven months after the climate emergency was declared, the EU Parliament backed an agricultural policy “which, in short, is driving ecological destruction with almost 400 billion euros,” Thunberg wrote.
This day shows again how big the gap is between current politics and the point “where we have to be to be in line with the Paris Agreement,” Thunberg said.
The budget is 387 billion euros
On Friday, a majority of MPs adopted a proposal for the next negotiations with EU member states on agricultural policy after 2022. The European Parliament has thus determined its position on the reform of the EU’s multi-billion dollar agricultural policy.
The objective of the CAP reform is to make European agriculture more sustainable. But there is also a lot of money involved, as the CAP accounts for more than a third of the EU budget. The draft budget from 2021 to 2027 is now at the center of the current debate. The budget proposal foresees 387 billion of the 1.074 billion euros for the CAP. Germany is entitled to around € 42 billion.
For days there had been a massive campaign by environmentalists against the reform. Activists such as Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future had also urged MEPs to reject the reform.
“Nature and the climate are big losers”
Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner (CDU) welcomed the parliamentary decision. “We are pursuing the same goal,” he said. “We want to unite food security with greater protection of the environment, species and the climate.” The German Farmers Association supported the general push but criticized the “technically incorrect” specifications for non-productive areas and crop rotation.
“Nature and climate are the big losers in the vote on the EU agricultural policy,” warned the nature conservation association Nabu. “The Brussels decision means that a large part of the tax money continues to harm nature and the climate.”
WWF Germany criticized a “business as usual for European agriculture”. This threatens the EU Commission’s Green Deal climate protection strategy of “filing for bankruptcy”. Greenpeace spoke of a “death sentence for small farms and nature.” The organization asked the EU Commission to withdraw its proposal and start the process over.
“The last word not yet said”
The German SPD in the European Parliament decided in the short term to vote against the reform plans. “Our red lines were almost all broken,” Vice President Katarina Barley said before the vote. A considerable part of the Social Democrats in other countries voted for the reform.
“The last word on agricultural reform has not yet been said,” said Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD). He referred to the resolutions of the EU environment ministers on the same day, some of which included broader objectives in the field of landscape protection.
