programme agro-environnemental - il concerne des méthodes de production agricoles compatibles avec les exigences de protection de l'environnement ainsi que l'entretien de l'espace naturel
The new reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP), proposed as a part of Agenda 2000(4), is designed to achieve necessary structural adjustments in some of the principal market regimes and the establishment of strong rural development policy. Environmental considerations, a central element of the Amsterdam Treaty, form an important element of the Commission's proposals, both to integrate environmental concerns into the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy and to assure farming practices necessary to safeguard the environment and preserve the countryside.
In addition to adjustments of market regimes to the conditions facing farming in the new century, the reform would develop a coherent integrated rural development policy as a second pillar of the CAP, largely financed from the guarantee section of the EAGGF(5). As foreseen in the proposal, the essence of the environmental elements of the proposals is that farmers should observe a minimum level of environmental practice as part-and-parcel of the support regimes, but that any additional environmental service, beyond the basic level, should be paid for by society through the agri-environment programmes.
