Greening CAP payments: A missed opportunity?

This paper, by Professor Alan Matthews, argues that the proposed greening of direct payments – the key innovation in the current round of CAP Reform – look likely to fail.

The paper examines the rationale underpinning greening, arguing that it exists to justify the continuation of a large agricultural budget, explores reasons for the apparent failure of the proposals, and reflects on the implications for future efforts to better integrate environmental objectives into EU agriculture policy.

This is the first in a series of Environment Nexus policy briefs by leading experts in the fields of agriculture, energy, climate change and water.