05/12/2019
Risk is inherent in the agricultural sector therefore farmers need
to develop strategies to address losses following climate events
or plant and animal diseases and price volatility. The common
agricultural policy (CAP) includes instruments to support risk
management by farmers and respond to crises. The recent CAP
reform proposals aim to increase the focus on risk
management. We found that the CAP offers a comprehensive
range of preventive instruments to increase farmers’ resilience,
but that the impact of these on farmers’ behaviour is limited. The
use of EU support for insurance remains low and has benefitted
only a fraction of farmers. No specific criteria were used to
consider the use of exceptional measures following the Russian
ban. We also found that the EU support for withdrawing products
for free-distribution was costly leading to some
overcompensation cases. We make recommendaons to the
Commission, aimed at encouraging farmers to better prepare for
crises, designing and monitoring of support for insurance,
clarifying the criteria for triggering and ending exceptional
measures, and adjusting compensation for withdrawal
operations.
ECA special report pursuant to Article 287(4), second
subparagraph, TFEU.
Special Report no 23/2019: Farmers’ income stabilisation: comprehensive set of tools, but low uptake of instruments and overcompensation need to be tackled
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