The CAP towards 2020: Meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) towards 2020 addresses the challenges that will affect the agriculture sector to enable the future CAP to become a more sustainable, more balanced, better targeted, simpler and more effective policy, more accountable to the needs and expectations of the EU citizens. The three main objectives for the future CAP are: (I) viable food production, (II) sustainable management of natural resources and climate action, and (III) balanced territorial development.
The CAP reform will be achieved to respond to the new challenges notably: (i) to address rising concerns regarding both EU and global food security, (ii) to enhance the sustainable management of natural resources such as water, air, biodiversity and soil, (iii) to address both the increasing pressure on agricultural production conditions caused by ongoing climate change, as well as the need for farmers to reduce their contribution to greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, play an active role in mitigation and provide renewable energy, (iv) to enhance competitiveness in a world characterized by increasing globalisation, and rising price volatility while maintaining agricultural production across the whole European Union, (v) to diversify EU farm structures and production systems, which has increased following EU enlargement, while maintaining its social, territorial and structuring role, (vi) to strengthen territorial and social cohesion in the rural areas of the European Union, particularly through the promotion of employment and diversification, (vii) to provide equitable and balanced CAP support between Member States and farmers, and (viii) to simplify the CAP implementation procedures and enhance control requirements and reduce the administrative burden for recipients of funds. Responding to these challenges, the CAP will also contribute to the EU 2020 Strategy in terms of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Green growth will be ensured in the agricultural sector and the rural economy as a way to enhance well being by pursuing economic growth while preventing environmental degradation.
The food production potential will be preserved on a sustainable basis throughout the EU, so as to guarantee long-term food security for European citizens and to contribute to growing world food demand, expected by FAO to increase by 70% by 2050. The future CAP will contribute to farm incomes and limit farm income variability to maintain viable rural communities that deliver multiple economic, social, environmental and territorial benefits. The rural economy will be improved and diversified to enable local actors to unlock their potential and to optimize the use of additional local resources. The competitiveness of the agricultural sector will be improved and its value share will be enhanced in the food chain, in order to provide the European citizens with quality, value and diversity of food produced sustainably, in line with the environmental, water, animal health and welfare, plant health and public health requirements. Green growth will be fostered through innovation which requires adopting new technologies, developing new products, changing production processes, and supporting new patterns of demand, notably in the context of the emerging bioeconomy. The resilience of the agricultural sector to the impacts of climate change will be increased to better adapt to the effects of extreme weather fluctuations.