The European Commission has launched a campaign that is set to simplify the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), making the agriculture sector throughout the bloc more market-oriented and responsive to the new challenges agriculture players in the EU have recently faced.

This campaign, called the CAP Health Check, was presented to Bulgarian media by Willi Schulz-Breve at a news conference on May 20, which ran simultaneously with similar events in all EU member state capitals. EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel made the presentation in Strasbourg.

The executive arm of the EU proposed changes in three main fields. Namely, the EC will aim to simplify the direct subsidies system and gradually pull them toward a flatter rate.

Second, the CAP would  introduce market instruments aimed at aiding farmers and stock breeders work in a more competitive environment. Currently, many agriculture sectors are heavily regulated and subject to subsidies, Breve said. For this reason, lifting subsidies, except for some sectors of strategic importance, was integral in pushing the agriculture markets toward liberalisation. Among the most important is the lifting of energy crop premiums and dairy quotas.

Third, some of the payments to date allocated for direct subsidies are set to be redirected toward rural regions development.

The EU is also set to address through a set of measures the new challenges facing producers, among which combating climate change, rising food prices and natural disasters.

The CAP Health Check is to be presented for informal and formal debate and is due for approval by the European Parliament by the end of the year, Breve said.