24/07/24 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 24 July, the NGOs ClientEarth and BirdLife Europe announced that they had lodged a complaint with the European Ombudsman about the reform of the environmental rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), proposed by the European Commission last March to appease EU farmers’ anger (see EUROPE 13408/20). Citing political urgency, the Commission met behind closed doors with only four farming unions, without seeking the opinion of NGOs or citizens. “The resulting proposal for the revision went against the wishes of two of those four farming unions, and the Commission omitted to carry out any kind of impact assessment”, according to the complainants. For more information: https://aeur.eu/f/d3w (LC)