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Agriculture and rural development
News article12 September 2022Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development

The Commission sets clear and common rules for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of CAP Strategic Plans

A man & a woman monitoring data on a handheld device

The Commission adopted a Regulation providing a common framework for monitoring and evaluating the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) achievements. This decision also sets out clear rules on the detailed information that Member States will need to collect so they can develop the appropriate IT tools and collection systems before the start of the new CAP on 1 January 2023.

This Implementing Regulation marks an important step in line with the overall reorientation of the CAP from a focus on compliance to a focus on results and performance. A common framework and a comprehensive set of data is needed to carry out the monitoring and evaluation of the CAP and it contributes to making the CAP more effective and efficient, as well as more respondent to social and environment needs.

The new evaluation framework laid down in the Regulation builds on existing experience and provides a common understanding of key concepts and elements for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of CAP Strategic Plans. When evaluating their CAP Strategic Plans, Member States are expected to assess their factors of success. The factors of success, listed in the annex to the Regulation, are aimed to assess the achievement of the CAP objectives, for example the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, the stability or increase of the agricultural income, the improvement of nutrient balance on agricultural land, or the growing of rural businesses. The benefits of the CAP Strategic Plans also have to be achieved at a reasonable cost and factor in simplification both for beneficiaries and for the administration. Therefore, the new regulation also pays attention to the efficiency, with special focus on administrative costs and the use of digital tools and satellites.

In the framework of the Annual Performance Report, Member States will share with the Commission aggregated data at national level, offering an overview of the level of implementation of CAP Strategic Plan at national level. But this will not be enough to allow the Commission evaluating the CAP. Therefore, within the new monitoring and evaluation framework, Member States will also provide in-depth information to the Commission.

More specifically, Member States will report to the Commission the following information:

  • data on interventions by beneficiary, for each of the CAP payments carried out;
  • data on beneficiaries, with the specific characteristics of CAP beneficiaries, including their gender, the location of their farm, as well as the farming practices which they implement under conditionality;
  • data on sectoral interventions, with administrative information on the organisation of producers, if relevant, as well as detailed information on the interventions carried out in specific sectors such as fruit and vegetable, wine or apiculture;
  • data on European Innovation Partnership projects supported by the CAP;
  • data on Local Actions Groups (LAGs) and the activities financed under LEADER.

Thanks to these detailed data, the Commission, as well as independent analysts and researchers, will be able to assess the contribution of the CAP towards its ten specific objectives. These data will also be used to prepare for the next CAP, as well as to address several European Court of Auditors’ recommendations.

Details

Publication date
12 September 2022
Author
Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development