The views of organic and small farmers were largely ignored in a recent European Commission consultation on a proposed simplification of CAP rules.

That’s the complaint made this week by the small farmers’ group ECVC and IFOAM Organics Europe in a letter to the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen. 

The two groups says that while the Commission made an issue of consulting all four Brussels-based farming groups, neither ECVC’s nor IFOAM Organics Europe’s demands on behalf of the farmers they represent were adequately considered in the final proposal.

Commenting, IFOAM Organics Europe President, Jan Plagge, said: “We are deeply concerned that our participation in the consultation was used to legitimise the process and proposal on CAP simplification, which will most likely result in lowering the CAP’s environmental delivery, and ultimately, its legitimacy.

In the letter, ECVC and IFOAM Organics Europe say that while they believe that reducing administrative burdens for farmers is necessary, this “must not result in lower environmental ambitions and further exacerbating the impact of climate change and of the biodiversity collapse that farmers already witness. On the contrary, any revision of European legislation should strengthen and protect the most sustainable, organic and agroecological models of agriculture and prepare the necessary transition of the European agri-food system”. 

They write: “As organizations representing farmers and committed to their well-being, as well as that of consumers and the environment, we urge the Commission, to ensure that CAP simplification rules and any actions taken are in line with achieving environmental, economic and social sustainability in the European food and farming system.”