Brussels, 20/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - In a resolution adopted on 20 April, the European Parliament said that the EU had failed to stem the decline of biodiversity in 2010 and that this objective should now be integrated into reform of the EU's common agricultural policy. Following the line of their rapporteur, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (ALDE, Netherlands), MEPs said that they wanted damaged ecosystems to be preserved and restored and for this to be the first priority in CAP reform, and that they wanted subsidies that were damaging to the environment to be identified with a view to their gradual elimination by 2020. They argued that CAP payments should be subject to strict cross compliance conditions that help preserve biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as strengthened inspections of agricultural practices to prevent the loss of this biodiversity. (AN/transl.fl)