The EU CAP Network supported by the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP is organising the upcoming Good Practice Workshop on ‘Assessment of environmental impacts of the CAP’ in Hannover, Germany on 12 – 13 June 2025, kindly hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture – Department CAP Strategic Plan, Direct Payments EAFRD.
Supporting and improving environmental protection and climate action is a high priority for the EU, reflected in its ambitious objectives in these areas. The CAP is expected to play a role in both reducing negative impacts and contributing to positive impacts on the environment and climate. Since 2016, the European Commission has emphasised the need to improve information gathering and data utilisation to support better policymaking. In particular, the potential of big data has been highlighted as a way to increase evaluation capabilities enabling early detection of trends and faster feedback. In the context of CAP evaluations, big data refers to the use of large, complex datasets to support evidence-based decision-making and policy implementation, such as the Integrated Administrative and Control System (IACS), Earth observation (EO) data or their combination with the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN). Against this background, the Good Practice Workshop aims to showcase the possibilities of using different data sources and methods for assessing and netting out environment impacts of the CAP.