Environmental sustainability standards in EU Common Agricultural Policy : a comparative analysis of the objectives of the EU General Environment Action Programme and the CAP direct payments scheme

This thesis offers research on the question: ‘To what extend is the CAP’s direct payment scheme supporting or undermining the intended increase of environmental sustainability standards of the European Union?”. By using an inductive, systematic research design, the coherence between the EU’s General Environment Action Programme objectives, and the eligibility and environmental standards for farmer income support will be studied. A comparative document analysis with a theoretical focus on the concepts of income support, greening and environmental sustainability as well as coherence and compliance with EU standards constitute the framework for this thesis. To answer the question a case study on the practices in a sector with high-income support dependency, the sugar farming sector will be conducted. The conclusion for this qualitative legal research will be supported by a set of agri-environmental indicators and will affirm that the policy frameworks objectives are coherent. However, there are differences found in the implementation and application of the sustainability strategy and the environmental standards of farmer income support.