European green deal and agricultural income guarantees: the just water transition as a condition of a new sustainable common agricultural policy

Abstract

The new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has brought important new features. The best known is reinforced conditionality. This system requires greater environmental obligations from the holders of CAP income aid. But the CAP has also introduced a new legal concept: social conditionality. PAC income guarantees will be penalized if certain community socio-labor obligations are not met, especially those related to transparent and predictable working conditions, as well as those related to the guarantee of a safe and healthy environment. Now, this regulatory framework seems insufficient for true environmentally and socially sustainable agriculture. This study analyzes the legal implications of this social conditionality and proposes changes for a more comprehensively sustainable agriculture, starting with a socially fair water transition.