The EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) has played a significant role in shaping European agriculture for the last half century, and is the single largest item in the EU’s budget, accounting for 37% of the budget in 2018.

The European Commission’s CAP plan’s stated aim is to increase the policy’s climate and environmental credentials, in order to fulfil the EU’s obligations under the Paris climate agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Since health, climate change and environmental objectives play a central role in the CAP, the European Parliament decided to give its environment (ENVI) and agriculture (AGRI) committees shared responsibility for the relevant parts of the CAP.

On 14 February, the environment committee voted in favour of several amendments which, if adopted in the final CAP legislative text, would be an essential first step towards limiting intensive factory farming and addressing its substantial health, environmental and animal welfare impacts.