IFOAM Organics Europe is calling on Member States and MEPs to maintain, in the future common agricultural policy (CAP), the obligation to support organic farming with payments for conversion and maintenance, as proposed by the European Commission, the organisation said on Wednesday 1 July.
This support is considered essential to remunerate the environmental services provided by organic farmers and constitutes, according to IFOAM, the main credible lever remaining in the CAP to make European agriculture more sustainable.
The organisation is advocating full financing by the European Union, with no requirement for 30% national co-financing, a condition considered difficult for many Member States to sustain. It also stresses the need for each country to adopt coherent and ambitious national and regional plans to support organic farming, with a level of support at least equivalent to that of the current CAP.
Furthermore, IFOAM welcomes several elements of the draft report by Norbert Lins (EPP, German), a Member of the European Parliament, notably the retention of the obligation to finance organic farming, the automatic recognition of conversion plans as transition measures, as well as the reintroduction (still considered too imprecise) of earmarking of CAP funds for agri-environmental measures.
The organisation submitted a statement (https://aeur.eu/f/moi ) on the 2028-2034 CAP to the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, calling for strong support specifically dedicated to organic farming after 2027. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)