What chances of a green agricultural policy?

In the latest issue of Euro Choices Viviane Gravey asks whether Brexit will lead to a green agricultural policy. She notes, 'while UK governments have pioneered and pushed for many green instruments in the CAP, their overarching priority remained to limit funding – both EU and national – for agriculture.' Moreover, the four nations of the UK have developed divergent policies under the flexible umbrella of the 2014-20 CAP.'

She points out that 'the UK's long‐standing reluctance to increase EU‐related spending has repeatedly constrained the UK's commitment to agri‐environment schemes.'

She concludes, 'while the UK government's current commitment to "put the environment first" calls for radical post‐Brexit change, the policy‐making process does not augur well for such change. Instead, it bears sharp similarities to CAP debates old and new. Within the EU, the UK's commitment to greening agriculture was repeatedly undermined by its opposition to increased spending for CAP and its growing euroscepticism.'

'Outside of the EU, the UK's renewed commitment to greening agriculture risks faltering once more due to broader national and international political tensions. These difficulties are linked to fraught power sharing under devolution, the challenges of guaranteeing a shared environmental baseline across the UK, and agreeing a fair budget for agriculture policy throughout the four nations, as well as the uncertain contour of any UK‐EU deal and future UK trade policy.'