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Abstract
The Common European Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform not only has an impact on
agriculture but also has significant effects on nature and the environment. This is specifically
caused by decoupling direct payments from agricultural production, which will increase the
market orientation of agriculture, and the implementation of Cross Compliance. Based on an
empirical analysis of the consequences of the CAP reform in eight German regions, a number
of key aspects for a future environmentally friendly development of the agrarian policy are
suggested. The results indicate that the CAP reform currently does not increase the proportion
of environmentally friendly production systems significantly. Cross Compliance is shown to
have certain positive effects; it improves the control of environmentally damaging farm
activities, in particular in the field of nitrate control. However, positive effects are limited and
CC is often negatively associated with nature conservation. The results furthermore show that
farms are affected varyingly by the CAP reform.