A new Eurobarometer recently published by the European Commission shows there is a broadly favourable vision to key elements of the forthcoming CAP reform package. Those key elements where there was an agreement were the concept of enhancing the link between Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) payments and environmental protection throughout the EU and limiting the amount of payments any individual farm.

Public opinion in the European Union is broadly favourable to key elements of the forthcoming CAP reform package, especially regarding the link between payments and environmental protection as a general rule all across the EU, better than those who support environmental protection for specific areas only; and limiting the amount of payments any individual farm. Actually, almost half of all EU citizens (47%) support an upper limit on subsidies. These are the main results of the latest Eurobarometer. Recently, European Court of Auditors observed that certain weaknesses remain on the recovery of new debts regarding the CAP.

In addition the results of the Eurobarometer also shows that small farms make a great contribution to the social life of rural areas and they are important to the rural economy. Thus, these reasons are seen as valid reasons for supporting/investing into small farms. Other findings are that nine out of ten people agree that buying local products is beneficial and that the EU should help to promote their availability. Almost half of all respondents say they find local products hard to identify. 65% of respondents agree that there are benefits in buying products originating in mountain areas. Fewer people (37%) agree that mountain products are easy to identify. Moreover, a clear majority of EU respondents (62%) believe that the names of the beneficiaries and the amounts they receive should be matters of public record accessible to all.

26,713 European citizens aged 15 and above were interviewed about CAP issues in the course of this Eurobarometer survey, at the request of the Commission between 6 and 26 May 2011 in all 27 European Union Member States. The European Commission is scheduled to publish proposals on 12 of October for reforming the CAP after 2013.