Understanding the role of meso-level decision making in linking policy and farmers: territorial implementation of agri-environmental schemes in Hauts-de-France

The Agri-Environmental Schemes (AES) are a voluntary subsidy schemes included under the pillar II of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and represent on the most ambitious policy instrument at farm level on biodiversity protection and related environmental and climatic objectives under the CAP framework. They were introduced at the end of the ‘90s after the MacSharry reform in 1992, and they have been regularly updated by EU Member States during the last three CAP financial programming period. Their policy design relies to a large extent on the EU subsidiarity principle, therefore both national and regional actors play a key role in their policy calibration, particularly public administrations under the Agriculture and Food Ministries. Policy calibration defines both the level of payments and the specific requirements for each measures (e.g. flower strips, hedges, seeds diversification) composing the AES, that are then implemented at farm level, shaping farming practices and landscape management practices. Farmers are advised and supported by actors under both public sector (e.g. natural regional parks) and civil society (e.g. associations, Ngos) that, along with actors involved in the AES policy calibration, compose the meso-level set of actors, stretching their actions between macro (i.e. policy design at EU level) to micro-level (i.e. farm management by farmers). Outputs of the intertwined meso-level decision making processes and related actors' dynamics is pivotal in shaping AES effectiveness, efficiency and feasibility. Our research paper adopt a regional case study approach of AES in Hauts-de-France (conducted under the EU Horizon project ENFASYS) to i) identify the mechanisms of policy design, policy calibration and policy implementation, ii) provide insights on meso-level actors’ dynamics and interaction flows (e.g. financial flows, information flows), both across the same level and with actors from the macro-level (i.e. EU institutions) and micro-level (i.e. farmers), and iii) conduct a systemic analysis on a list of barriers meso-level actors have identified to the effective, efficient and feasible AES implementation. Initial results show that the three levels of policy design (EU macro-level), policy calibration (national and regional meso-level) and policy implementation (farm micro-level) are intertwined one another, as two trends occurs, one downwards injecting financial assets and compliance rules, and one upwards providing information for policy evaluation exercise and opinions & interest through representative system such as labor unions. Moreover, barriers identified by the actors, underline lock-ins mechanisms occurring both within each of the three level (e.g. macro level: EU decision on limited financial resources for advising and supporting activities), but also across levels (e.g. limited coordination between administrative and budgetary responsibilities of AES). The paper aims at contributing to the field of environmental policy integration, under a multi-level perspective targeting public administration processes and optimising the design, calibration and implementation of public subsidies.