100 European wildlife, environment and anti-poverty NGOs have pushed the Commission to carry out a fitness check of the EU’s farming policy.

Over the last few years, as reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) were negotiated and implemented, experts warned of the adverse impacts of the current regime. When the CAP was last reformed in 2013, researchers from the University of East Anglia who contributed to the government’s 2011 National Ecosystem Assessment warned that EU farming policy as it currently exists represents poor value for society and the environment, and in 2015 Cambridge researchers said “perverse” subsidy payments are delivering little benefit for the public or the environment.

Launching their appeal, which coincides with the first day of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture (FFA) being held in Brussels, the groups demanded that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker initiates an in-depth review of food production and consumption in Europe.

Faustine Bas-Defossez, senior agriculture policy officer for the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), one of the groups that issued the call, commented, “It is time for Juncker to give Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan the mandate to open the debate on whether the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is fit-for-purpose.

“Given that 53 billion euros is pumped into Europe’s farming system every year, it is only fair that taxpayers are allowed to see if they are getting a good return for their money. The European Commission has already put much of the EU’s environmental legislation through the mill, and it seems only right that the same level of scrutiny is applied to EU farm policies.

“Policymakers continue to claim that EU farming policies are greener and fairer than ever. But science shows that this is not the case. We need a food and farming policy that gives EU citizens access to healthy soils, water, air and, obviously, food. Farmers should be rewarded for such work, not for ploughing massive amounts of toxic chemicals into our land which are detrimental to their health, that of consumers and our nature.”

The European Commission is currently carrying out assessments of its policies under its ‘Better Regulation’ scheme, over the course of which environmental protection legislation has come under great scrutiny, but farm policy has yet to be examined. The Better Regulation agenda has been criticised by European Greens as a euphemistic and anti-democratic means of shifting power from elected lawmakers to the commission itself, and for attacking legislation protecting human rights, the environment and public health deemed to be increasing costs for business.

Trees Robijns, BirdLife Europe’s agriculture spokesperson, added, “We need a good, open and honest debate with all stakeholders about the CAP based on five points so often touted by the fitness check: its effectiveness, efficiency, coherence with other EU policies, relevance and the added value of an EU-wide policy against national ones. Essentially, the EU would finally have to ask itself (and answer) the question: Is the CAP fit for purpose?”

The Commission has been contacted for comment.

Speaking at the Forum for the Future of Agriculture on Tuesday, Commissioner Hogan sustainable development goals will be integrated into the Common Agricultural Policy, as well as the EU’s agricultural research and innovation policy, and agri-food trade policy. Even so, he said, “The CAP has changed to reflect a changing world, and I firmly believe it has evolved for the better.”