Slovakia's Agri-Environment-Climate Measure (AEKO) — CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027

Slovakia's Agri-Environment-Climate Measure (Agroenvironmentálno-klimatické opatrenie, AEKO) operates under Article 70 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 as part of the country's 2023-2027 CAP Strategic Plan. It comprises sub-operations for organic farming, precise fertilisation and water-resource protection, environment-friendly arable/orchard/vineyard management, biodiversity protection, grassing of arable land, breeding of endangered livestock breeds, forest-environmental services, and animal welfare. It is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic and paid out by the Agricultural Paying Agency (PPA) in Bratislava.

The measure carries €641.78 million in public funding (€406.7M EU + €235.1M national) for 2023-2027. A companion eco-scheme, worth €559.16 million, recorded real 2023 uptake: of 16,417 applicants covering 1,736,758 ha, 9,449 applicants (57.6%) enrolled 1,533,292 ha (88.3%) at payment rates of roughly €59/ha outside protected bird areas and €92/ha within them. Forward result-indicator targets include habitat/biodiversity-preservation commitments on 50.94% of relevant agricultural area and management of 10.67% of Slovakia's total Natura 2000 area.

The European Commission's May 2022 observation letter on Slovakia's draft plan flagged that AEC baseline definitions needed sharper precision and that using a single average payment rate across several distinct management commitments 'does not seem justifiable.' No published figures were found for hectares actually enrolled in the core AEKO measure itself, as distinct from the adjacent eco-scheme. Independent monitoring by the NGO SOS/BirdLife Slovensko documents severe farmland-biodiversity declines that motivated the scheme's redesign — grey partridge numbers down 99% by 2022 — and argues that even the redesigned protected-area payment rate (~€92/ha) remains insufficiently valued relative to the land-use restrictions it imposes.

Read the full analysis: https://eu-cap-network.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/2024-10/eu-cap-network-csp-summary-slovakia.pdf