The European Commission published the Staff Working Document on the evaluation of the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures on the general objective ‘viable food production’.
The purpose of this evaluation is to assess to what extent the relevant policy instruments of the 2014-2020 CAP have helped to achieve this overarching policy objective, focusing on increasing and stabilising agricultural income, increasing the competitiveness of the farm sector and maintaining market stability.
The evaluation is particularly relevant in light of the objectives set out in the Farm to Fork Strategy, which complements the European Green Deal, and in light of the response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The geographical coverage of the evaluation encompasses the European Union of 28 Member States, including the United Kingdom as it was a member of the EU at the time of the evaluation.
Some key lessons learned deducted from the evaluation findings are:
- direct income support strongly contributes to stabilising farm income;
- external convergence is effective in reducing disparities between Member States;
- internal convergence is generally effective in reducing disparities between farmers in Member States, but the implementation of the internal convergence and the reduction of payments (degressivity) has been limited;
- the effectiveness of the young farmer payment depends on the ambitions of particular Member States;
- market measures, EU quality schemes and various EAFRD measures contributing to productivity growth play a role in supporting farm income by limiting downward price volatility and improving competitiveness;
- the measures contributing to the viable food objective are relevant, overall coherent and consistent with other CAP and EU policy objectives and generate an EU value added.