“These results (…) illustrate the significant extent to which the content of the reformed common agricultural policy (CAP) is attuned to civil society expectations”, commented the European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos.

Brussels, 10/03/2014 More than three quarters (77%) of Europeans believe that the common agricultural policy (CAP) benefits all EU citizens. Over 90% of them support the main trends of the new CAP, such as making aid fairer and more targeted (92%) and linking the granting of aid to farmers to adhering to environmentally-friendly farming practices (greening, 91%). These are the main conclusions of the Eurobarometer survey on the CAP, which was published on Monday 10 March by the European Commission.

“These results (…) illustrate the significant extent to which the content of the reformed CAP is attuned to civil society expectations”, commented the European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos.

The idea of granting aid to farmers more fairly and in a more targeted way is seen as “a very good thing” by 74% of the people surveyed in Cyprus and 71% in Bulgaria, but just 25% in Croatia. Support for this is considerably higher than at the end of 2009, as the proportion of respondents who feel that it is a “very good thing” rose by more than 10 points in the United Kingdom (56%, +19), Spain (69%, +18), Ireland (62%, +11), France (54%, +11), Portugal (61%, +11) and Slovenia (60%, +11).

The fact that financial aid to farmers will be linked to their adherence to environmentally friendly agricultural practices (greening) was described as “a very good thing” by more than 70% of people surveyed in Cyprus (78%) and in Sweden (73%), but just 29% in the Netherlands and 30% in Croatia (and it is down 11% in Germany, to 51%).

The other trends highlighted by the survey are as follows: – more than 80% of Europeans support the key objectives of the CAP (provision of food products, developing rural areas in a fairer way, supporting young farmers); – the majority of the EU citizens are in favour of the support granted to farmers and of the share of the EU budget this support represents. The level of aid to farmers is described as“adequate” by 45%, “too low” by 26%, (and “too high” 13%): – 91% of Europeans feel that it is important to support vulnerable farms when they are faced with problems related to the climate, health or economy; – 64% of Europeans have heard of the support granted by the EU to farmers in the framework of the CAP, whilst in the previous survey in 2009, just 41% of Europeans said that they had heard of the CAP generally; – the majority of Europeans (61%) are aware that agricultural income is lower than that of other economic sectors.

Europeans want more transparency on provenance of dairy products and meat. As regards consumer information, the survey shows that Europeans pay a great deal of attention to the quality of food products such as milk and certain types of meat, and that they have considerable expectations as regards traceability. Most of them (53%) are even prepared to pay a bit more for information on the origin of these products to be included on labels.