The European Commission has presented a package of measures to simplify the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which were welcomed by agricultural co-ops.
Announced on 14 May, the package targets the administrative burden, controls, implementation, crisis response and investment needs of the sector. The Commission says the changes could save up to €1.58bn annually for farmers and €210m for national administrations.
Under the proposal, the annual lump-sum payment received by small farmers under the CAP will be increased from €1,250 to €2,500. Farmers would also be exempted from certain environmental rules while they may benefit from payments that reward eco-friendly farming.
The plan would also introduce simplified environmental requirements, with controls streamlined through the use of satellite and technology and only one on-the-spot check per year per farm.
Another change would be the introduction of a new funding option offering up to €50,000 as a lump-sum to help farmers improve the competitiveness of their farms.
The Commission is also proposing changes to support EU farmers affected by natural disasters or animal diseases, with the introduction of new crisis payments available under CAP Strategic Plans.
“We are bringing back pragmatism in the Common Agricultural Policy,” said Christophe Hansen, commissioner for agriculture and food. “Our proposals today strike a balance between the need to have a policy fit for the realities on the ground while safeguarding a certain stability for all agricultural stakeholders.
“The Commission is on farmers’ side, and we are doing our best to cut the bureaucracy so they can focus on what they do best; producing food for all of us while protecting our natural resources. I am confident that these measures will deliver concrete results on the ground. I call on co-legislators to adopt this proposal by the end of the year so changes can already reach farmers in 2026.”
Copa and Cogeca, the voice of farmers and their co-ops, welcomed the proposal, which comes in response to the 2024 farmers’ protests and aligns with the broader objectives of the European Competitiveness Agenda.
“In principle, Copa and Cogeca support both the approach and the strong language used by Commissioners Hansen, Fitto, and Dombrovskis during the presentation of the package,” they said in a statement.
“For years, our organisations have been calling for common-sense simplification measures, changes that would allow farmers to focus more on managing their farms and also help enhance the competitiveness of EU agricultural production.”
The apexes added that they would undertake a detailed analysis of the proposal with their members.
“This is now the second corrective package on the CAP presented by the Commission within a single year,” they said. “This fact should serve as a lesson for the future and shape our discussions going forward: the agricultural sector needs policies that are coherent, meaningful and implementable.
“These principles must apply not only within the CAP but across all EU policies that impact agriculture. In that regard, we have high expectations for the simplification measures already announced outside the CAP framework, as they too will directly affect the sector. Finally, we stress that future simplification efforts must not undermine the common nature of the CAP or open the door to uncontrolled renationalisation.”
The Commission’s proposal will be submitted to the European Parliament and Council for adoption, with further proposals due to be presented later this year.
But the European Environmental Bureau expressed concerns over some of the measures proposed by the Commission, arguing they would “risk dismantling vital environmental protections without evidence or impact assessment.”
“Without sufficient impact assessment or real public consultation, the European Commission has yet again casually done away with nature and climate protections in Europe’s largest budget, the Common Agricultural Policy,” said Théo Paquet, senior policy officer for agriculture at the EEB. “Such short–sighted decisions will not only hinder farm resilience (due the many benefits provided by healthy ecosystems), but brings the legitimacy of the CAP into question as it strays further from its environmental and climate objectives.”
An earlier Commission proposal to amalgamate the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) into a single fund instrument had been criticised by Copa and Cogeca. The suggestion was also rejected by the European Parliament, which last week adopted its own report on the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), led by co-rapporteurs Carla Tavares (S&D, Portugal) and Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romania). The report asked for the CAP’s separate budget line to be maintained in the next Multi-annual Financial Framework while calling for the budget to be increased.
