A methodology to assess the impacts of EU policies on land. What are the direct impacts of the EU policy on land use, land take and land degradation. Links between land take, land degradation and land efficiency and EU strategic objectives on land use and land degradation. It would be valuable to have a stronger information
base for future assessments; for example, indicators related to land take and land degradation could be proposed for the list of common indicators for Cohesion Policy. This would support the assessment
of impacts. For impacts, the loss of ecosystem functions, resulting from land degradation, needs to be
further quantified and monetised to inform decision making.The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms for the 2014–2020 cycle stipulate that a share of direct payments should be linked to greening measures. These measures could have positive results in terms of reducing land degradation; however, their implementation by Member States (which will have a significant amount of leeway as far as funding allocation is concerned) will play a key role in shaping the results. Finally, the study highlights the importance of the national, regional and local contexts with regard to shaping the patterns of land use that lead to a decrease in land take and land degradation pressures.