Symposium on the future of the CAP

On 22 June 2018, SFER, with the support of the European Foundations for Sustainable Agriculture and Agropolis Fondation, organised an international day to present and discuss the orientations of the CAP 2020. The general issue of this day was: does the CAP allow institutional, economic and technical innovations capable of responding effectively to the challenges of tomorrow?
The day was introduced by Dacian Ciolos, former European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. He explained the need, in his opinion, to change the vision of European agriculture. The future CAP should respond more to society’s needs rather than to a logic of mass production. According to him, two main issues must be taken into account. Firstly, the issue of food in terms of quantity, quality, safety and diversity; secondly, the issue of protecting biodiversity. According to him, European agriculture will only survive if it meets the multiple expectations of society. Without this legitimacy, it is likely that European funding for agriculture will decrease. It is also necessary to accept a greater reliance on regulation and standards, while ensuring a decent income for farmers and sufficient agricultural production.