CAP Reform – an explanation of the main elements

The Commission, the Council and the European Parliament (EP) have today reached a political agreement on the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy – subject to formal approval by the Council and the EP as a 1st reading Agreement once the texts have been formalised in all languages. Based on the Commission proposals from October 2011 (see IP/11/1181 and MEMO/11/685), the agreement relates to four basic European Parliament and Council regulations for the Common Agriculture Policy – i) on Direct Payments, ii) the Single Common Market Organisation (CMO), iii) Rural Development and, iv) a Horizontal Regulation for financing, managing and monitoring the CAP.