On Tuesday, November 12, the European Commission (EC) approved the Second Amendment to the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy of Latvia (CAP SP) for 2023-2027 developed by the Ministry of Agriculture (ZM). The main changes concern the application of direct payments and rural development interventions, simplifying conditions and avoiding excessive detailing of requirements.
The CAP SP revises a number of provisions of good Agricultural and environmental condition (GAEC) standards, specifying them for the protection of wetlands and peatlands, the establishment of buffer strips along water bodies and plant changes. Simplified conditions for the grant of multi-ecoscheme support in order to reduce the administrative burden on farmers by avoiding excessive detailing of CAP SP requirements. The conditions for a system of social conditions relating to working and employment conditions or to the obligations of the employer have been laid down. Changes to direct payment measures (interventions) will apply from 2025 onwards.
The CAP SP also specifies the conditions for a number of rural development measures. For more information on the amendments approved by the EC, read the ZM website.
For the implementation of the CAP SP, EUR 2.5 billion is foreseen for 2023-2027, with the largest part of the funding, or EUR 1.714 billion, in the form of direct payments. EUR 0.791 billion is foreseen for rural development measures and EUR 10.1 million for support measures for the common organisation of the market.
Amendments to the CAP Strategic Plan were prepared by experts from the GM in cooperation with industry, organising several CAP expert working groups in the first quarter of 2024. At the meetings, experts discussed and agreed on the necessary amendments together with farmers' and environmental non-governmental organisations. The amendments to the CAP SP on 14 May 2024 were also agreed with the monitoring Committee of the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.
The Latvian CAP SP is a medium-term policy planning document that defines support priorities and support instruments for agriculture and also rural development. After the first year of implementation of CAP support, it was concluded that changes to a number of support measures were needed to reduce the level of detailing of conditions in the CAP SP and the administrative burden on farmers and to increase the interest of farmers in applying for a wider range of support.