The European Parliament approved a resolution which calls for building into key EU policies the biodiversity conservation. On this way, MEPs also highlights that environmentally harmful subsidies should be named and phased out by 2020, and to redirect the CAP towards compensating farmers for delivering public goods.

The resolution approved in plenary session by the European Parliament on higher political priority should go to preserving and restoring damaged ecosystems, it also stresses that biodiversity conservation should be built into key EU policies, and it adds that environmentally harmful subsidies should be named and phased out by 2020.

MEPs consider that that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a tool not only for food production and rural development, but also for conserving biodiversity in the text approved. They therefore stressed that the CAP should be redirected towards compensating farmers for delivering public goods, since the market currently fails to integrate the economic value of the important public goods which agriculture can deliver. Recently, a report from the European Court of Auditors underlined that the CAP is still complex despite the proposal for its reform.

In addition, the Parliament also highlights in the resolution that CAP payments, including those made from 2014, should be underpinned by robust cross-compliance rules which contribute to the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services covering legislation on birds and habitats, water, pesticides and biocides.