Tools4CAP project: Support decision-makers with policy tools
Tools4CAP aims to support the design, implementation and monitoring of the CAP-SP by stimulating Member States to adopt methods and tools adapted to their needs.
On 13 and 14 February 2023, the European project Tools4CAP held its kick-off meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Tools4CAP - which stands for “Innovative Toolbox empowering effective CAP governance towards EU ambitions” - is a four-year project funded with 4 million euros by the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation. It will support the implementation of National Strategic Plans 2023-2027 and lay the foundations for a sound preparation of post-2027 Strategic Plans.
Following extensive negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission, an agreement was reached, and the new common agricultural policy (CAP) was formally adopted on 2 December 2021, and implemented from 1 January 2023. The European Commission presented its first proposal for the CAP reform in 2018, introducing a new way of working to modernise and simplify the EU’s policy on agriculture.
The CAP’s new performance and results-based approach provides more flexibility to the Member States to pave the way for a fairer, greener and improved competitiveness of the CAP. Agriculture and rural areas are central to the European Green Deal. The new CAP is a critical tool in reaching the ambitions of the Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies.
To this end, each EU country has developed a CAP Strategic Plan to support a wide range of interventions, combining funding for income support, rural development and market measures, addressing their specific needs, aiming to deliver tangible results in relation to EU-level CAP specific objectives, while contributing to the European Green Deal.
The overall ambition of Tools4CAP is to support the design, implementation and monitoring of the CAP-SP by stimulating Member States to adopt methods and tools adapted to their needs. The project will empower policymakers in the governance of the CAP towards the green transition and achieving the set-out objectives. It will provide tailor-made, out-of-the-box quantitative and qualitative solutions, including modelling tools with forecasting capabilities, participatory decision-making and multi-governance tools, and new data and monitoring solutions. The project expects to demonstrate the potential of different innovative solutions which can accommodate a diversity of needs through 10 case studies.
Coordinated by ECORYS Brussels, Tools4CAP engages a wide range of partners from 16 EU countries with outstanding expertise in economic, environmental, climate and social issues, new data sources and monitoring technologies, as well as in stakeholder engagement, social, environmental, and animal welfare-related data and indicators, in agricultural and rural development contexts.
For further information
Bérénice Dupeux, ECORYS Brussels
Blanca Casares, European Association for Innovation on Local Development (AEIDL)