A vital and timely new Toolkit on the Common Agriculture Policy and Rural Development in the EU has been released by the ARC2020 team.

With political agreement on remaining CAP issues reached between the European Parliament, the EU Council of Ministers and the European Commission Tuesday evening, before further urgent discussions and votes in the Parliament and Council, the timing could not be more apt for the release of this Toolkit.

This working document will prove invaluable for organisations and citizens making the case for good food, good farming and better rural policies in Europe.

The big issues in the CAP reform process have been examined in detail by ARC2020's expert team and partners. From this work has come the Toolkit, the first version of which contains all of the latest CAP related developments, as well as specific proposals for how stakeholders can improve this CAP reform during the implementation stage up to mid-2014.

This toolkit, which can be found of ARC2020's website here, explains the CAP's “when, what and how can we make it better?”

Importantly, the ARC2020 team has uncovered huge opportunities for civil society and organisations to work together: this Toolkit reveals what these are.

Despite the basic CAP agreement on June 26th, there is still much to fight for in the remaining negotiations. Crucial decisions have been left at the regional and national level, so there is much that can be achieved in individual countries. Financial support for, transfers between, the CAP Pillars 1 and 2 is a key issue.

“At ARC2020, we feel it is really important to help our partners, supporters and all those concerned about the future state of the environment and farming in Europe. This toolkit, which will be updated monthly with national case studies, will act as a practical guide and reference point on all the details and big EU food and farming policy decisions coming in the weeks and months ahead” Samuel Feret, ARC2020 coordinator said.