We are pleased to welcome this post which has been written by Jabier Ruiz, who is Senior Policy Officer, Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems at the European Policy Office of WWF in Brussels.
Internal convergence: a multi-faceted obligation
In recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy, and of the Multiannual Financial Framework, the (external) convergence of decoupled direct payments across EU member states is always a very sensitive political topic. This issue has been covered extensively in this blog (for example, here and here). There is much less awareness and discussion on the topic of internal convergence, another obligation existing in the current (and future) CAP and which aims to progressively equalise the value of decoupled direct payment entitlements (€ per hectare) within each Member State or region.
The debate on external convergence is largely motivated by the concerns of the newer Member States. Internal convergence is an issue for the older Member States (plus Slovenia and Malta) that apply the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) with entitlements rather than the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS) under which all payments are anyway on a flat-rate basis per eligible hectare.… Read the rest