The European Commission's recommendations for reforming the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - the so-called "Health Check" -have come under criticism from European governments and environmental campaigners, albeit for different reasons.

On 20 November the EC unveiled proposals for the next phase of changes to European agricultural policy. Among the recommended reforms would be cuts in direct payments to Europe's largest farms.

The EC proposal has been viewed as an attempt to address growing criticism over the fact that some very wealthy landowners receive large amounts of public money under the CAP; the Queen of England and Prince Albert of Monaco are among the elites that have received EU farm subsidies.

But the EC plan has drawn fire from countries like the UK and Germany, who argue that the proposals, if adopted, could punish Europe's most efficient agricultural producers.

"There is no clear link between wealth and the size of a farm," said a UK spokesperson to the Financial Times newspaper.

"This idea of capping payments according to size is something we don't like, said a German spokesperson, also to the FT.

However, according to some experts, the greater concern is the EC's the lack of ambition in tackling the CAP's fundamental flaws. While it is possible to poke holes in the objections raised by the UK and Germany, "that does not take away from the fact that the proposal, even if implemented, will have little more than an optical effect," writes Alan Matthews, Professor of European Agricultural Policy based in the Department of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
 
According to an analysis undertaken by Farmsubsidy.org, a group that pushes for greater transparency and accountability in EU agricultural subsidies, the payment limitations would affect 23,500 recipients of farm payments (only around 0.3 percent all farms).

Meanwhile, the non-profit environmental organization BirdLife International has also given the EC proposals poor marks, in this case for not putting more emphasis on sustainable farming and land management.
 
Still, BirdLife International is pleased with the Health Check's proposal to eliminate per-hectare subsidies for biofuel crops. "This is good news for the environment as these subsidies are not based on greenhouse gas savings or environmental safeguards," writes, Ariel Brunner, BirdLife's Agriculture Policy Officer. "However, this subsidy is increasingly dwarfed by the incentives given to biofuels through energy policy," adds Mr Brunner.

For more information see:

The European Commission's "blueprint for streamlining and further modernising the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy" is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/healthcheck/index_en.htm
 
See www.farmsubsidy.org and www.caphealthcheck.eu for more in depth analysis of the EC's Health Check proposals.