Agri-environmental policy in Spain. The agenda of socio-political developments at the national,regional and local levels

EU agri-environmental legislation provides that every Member State may enact its own regulations specifying standards and environmentally sensitive areas. Thus Member States have substantial scope for adapting basic principles and implementing them in their own way. This has enabled competing interest groups to promote their own priorities. Spanish environmental policy has been influenced by its membership of the EU and by the political interests of Spain's Regional Governments. Before EU agri-environmental legislation came into force, environmental considerations were virtually ignored when shaping farming policy. The agri-environmental measures were the last of the new CAP accompanying measures to be introduced into Spanish agriculture, the national basis for their application being laid down in 1995. Only two of the seven types of measures provided in Regulation 2078/92 have been adopted at a national level. The other five have been incorporated, very unevenly, into regional programmes designed to help environmentally sensitive areas. Only 6 out of 66 programmes had been developed and implemented by the end of 1998. Local effectiveness of regional measures is low as a result of scheme factors (lack of policy coordination, competition from other CAP subsidies) and attitudinal factors (farmers’ scepticism and reluctance of the agricultural authorities).