Supporting Monitoring Committees and strengthening farm skills
- CAP Implementation
- Agricultural Production
- AKIS
- CAP Strategic Plans
- Communication
- Jobs, Growth and Equality in Rural Areas
- LEADER
- Networking
- Rural Development
Reflections on the CAP’s Monitoring Committees are among a batch of useful new information on the EU CAP Network website. Other new online content includes recommendations on skills for EU agricultural sectors.
Findings and outcomes from the EU CAP Network Thematic Groups (TGs) continue to be published online and a recent example is the final report of the TG on CAP Strategic Plans: Monitoring Committees. It provides a unique insight into Member State experiences with the new CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) Monitoring Committees. It reveals that TG members considered that “in many cases, it is unclear how much influence Monitoring Committees have on CSP implementation”.
The TG provided a unique opportunity for Member States to informally share and compare their insights on the new CSP arrangements. These perspectives were collected through the animation of CAP stakeholders, which underlines how useful the EU CAP Network can be in supporting CSP implementation. Member States can now also consider the TG’s reflections when planning future CSP developments.
Overall, Monitoring Committees, with their diverse range of expertise and experiences, were highly regarded for their contribution to implementing CSPs. The TG also gave special attention to the potential of National Networks (NNs) and Monitoring Committees collaborating more closely because the NNs offer valuable outreach and capacity-building resources. Another key insight from the TG underscores the benefits of aligning CSP Monitoring Committees with counterparts from key EU support programmes, such as cohesion policy and fisheries funding.
Farm sector skills
The TG on Nurturing Skills for a Thriving and Sustainable Agricultural Sector concluded that similar synergies can be achieved through targeted allocation of CAP funding to address specific support gaps. The EU CAP Network website features a wealth of information from this TG, including a set of action-oriented recommendations for upskilling and reskilling the EU agricultural workforce. A collection of different good practices in nurturing agricultural skills further promotes examples of encouraging skills development in agriculture. The TG’s second meeting Highlights report is also available online for sharing.