An upgrade for agricultural policy
Evaluating the effectiveness of Europe's agricultural sector and legislation has traditionally been the role of the Common Agricultural Policy Regional Impact (CAPRI) assessment modelling system. As Europe grew and new issues surfaced such as climate change and rural unemployment, a need for a more robust assessment system emerged as well. The EU-funded project 'Common agricultural policy regional impact assessment - The dynamic and spatial dimension' (CAPRI-Dynaspat) sought to address this need. It aimed to create a modelling system that would cover the EU-25 and incorporate all the environmental and socioeconomic challenges. Such an accomplishment would enable policymakers and other stakeholders to assess the measures of the EU's CAP more effectively. Specifically, it would enable them to reliably evaluate the CAP's effects on land use, production, environment, employment and agricultural income, both on national and regional levels. Essentially, the project team worked on demonstrating the effectiveness of new projects such as CAPRI-Dynaspat, particularly with respect to the EU's NMS and the bloc's eastward expansion. It outlined how the initiative can support policymaking, bring European researchers together and be effectively assessed by scientists. CAPRI-Dynaspat was designed to emphasise policy relevance and develop tools that benefit society, taking into account the diversity of European research. In particular, it enabled data from NMS to be incorporated into the ERA, bringing them closer to the core of the EU. The expected result is slated to be a streamlined agricultural policy that reflects realities across the entire EU.
