The Committee of the Regions hosted a conference and a public hearing on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on March 8th, 2017. Agriculture represents 14 million farms and 46 million jobs in the European Union and the CAP is one of the oldest EU policies. Vice-President Timmermans has asked the COR for an opinion paper on the simplification of the CAP and how this policy should evolve to face the major challenges of agriculture nowadays. In parallel, DG AGRI launched a public consultation on the simplification and modernization of the CAP which will be open until May 2nd, 2017.

Rapporteur Guillaume Cros underlined two main objectives which are 1) Maintaining rural activity and vitality, and 2) Strengthening agricultural economy through more jobs and higher added value.