Copa and Cogeca, which represent European farmers and their co-ops, have launched a petition against the idea of a ’single fund’ to finance the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Currently financed through two separate funds, the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), the CAP accounts for 31% of the total EU budget.
Looking to maintain this level of support, the No security without CAP petition calls on future EU budgets to help keep farmers competitive in “an increasingly tense global market”.
Farmers carried out a ‘flash action’ simultaneously in over 20 EU member states last May and Copa and Cogeca warn that further mobilisation is likely unless the Commission provides “clarity or reassurance”.
“On one hand, the Commission tells us that agriculture is a priority,” said Copa president Massimiliano Giansanti. “But what do the facts say? The Commission is preparing a budget for 2028–2034 where agricultural funding will be reduced, where the CAP could lose its ‘Common’ nature, and where we would again be discussing policies without knowing the available resources.
“All of this will be presented in the middle of summer, in July, right in the harvest season! That’s simply not acceptable, and that’s why we are calling for mobilisation through this petition.”
The petition outlines four demands: a dedicated and increased budget for the CAP; rejecting the renationalisation of agricultural policy; maintaining the CAP’s two-pillar architecture; and ensuring reforms occur only after “genuine and timely consultation with farmers and agri co-operatives” and are backed by “adequate financial resources”.
“The EU budget is, above all, a question of political will,” said Cogeca president Lennart Nilsson. “The European Parliament has already sent a clear message to the Commission: the single fund proposal is simply not acceptable, especially when it comes to agriculture.
“In a time of global uncertainty, climate challenges, economic shifts, and generational renewal, we know that agriculture plays a key stabilising role – and we cannot jeopardise its future with budgetary short cuts.”
The CAP was initially financed by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), before the single fund was replaced by the EAGF and EAFRD in 2007.
