Toelichting bij COM(2025)560 - Conditions for the implementation of the Union support to the Common Agriculture Policy for the period from 2028 to 2034 - Hoofdinhoud
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| dossier | COM(2025)560 - Conditions for the implementation of the Union support to the Common Agriculture Policy for the period from 2028 to 2034. |
|---|---|
| bron | COM(2025)560  |
| datum | 16-07-2025 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
Farming and food are strategic sectors for the Union, providing safe and high-quality food to 450 million Europeans at affordable prices and playing a key role for European as well as global food security. At the same time, they are essential for sustaining the economy and life in rural areas, as well as an important part of the solution in the protection of climate, nature, soils, water, and biodiversity currently under stress. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is at the heart of the European project and has committed more than 60 years ago to ensuring food security and a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, in line with the EU Treaties’ objectives.
Such commitment is as relevant today as it was then, as the EU agricultural sector faces significant challenges. The sectors attractiveness for young people needs a boost, as only a fraction of farmers is younger than 40 years. The sector is exposed to climate change, biodiversity loss, and socio-economic pressures, which threaten its long-term sustainability and livelihoods. Uneven global playing fields, some import dependencies and vulnerability to geopolitical uncertainties add to the long-term uncertainty faced by EU farmers. Investments are difficult to finance as agricultural income per worker remains significantly lower than the average wages in the whole economy (60% in 2023). Additionally, territorial imbalances and, insufficient access to knowledge and innovation – including digital solutions - contribute to the declining attractiveness of the sector, particularly among young people.
These challenges make public support necessary for the sector and at the same time call for a robust and adaptive policy response to ensure a competitive, resilient, and sustainable agricultural sector. Building on the successful previous reforms that put the CAP on the path of a performance-based and market-oriented policy, the CAP thus needs to continue to evolve and sharpen its ability to respond effectively to a changing global, EU, national and regional situation, including at farm level.
EU Heads of State have repeatedly emphasized the need to enhance the resilience of EU agriculture to ensure long-term food security, preserve the vitality of rural communities, and recognize the crucial role of the CAP in achieving these goals. At the same time, they have stressed the importance of providing a stable and predictable policy framework to support farmers in addressing environmental and climate challenges.
The Political Guidelines for the Commission mandate 2024-2029 underscore the importance of ensuring that farmers have a fair and sufficient income to continue innovating and delivering benefits to the Union as a whole. To achieve this, the guidelines call for reducing bureaucratic burdens, rewarding farmers who work in harmony with nature, and strengthening their position in the food value chain to protect them from unfair trading practices. This requires striking a balance between incentives, investments, and regulation to build a more competitive and resilient agricultural sector.
The Commission's Communication of 19 February 2025, 'A Vision for Agriculture and Food,' outlines key principles for the CAP post-2027. These principles include a CAP based on clear objectives and targeted requirements, with Member States assuming greater responsibility and accountability for meeting policy objectives. The Communication also highlights the essential role of the CAP in supporting and stabilizing farmers' incomes, attracting a new generation of farmers, and ensuring a simpler and more targeted policy with a clearer balance between incentives and mandatory requirements. Furthermore, it emphasises the need for greater flexibility for farmers and a shift from conditions to incentives. The new financial framework presents an opportunity to build on the recent reform, aligning rules for support to achieve competitiveness, resilience, innovation, and sustainability objectives in a cohesive and effective manner.
The 2023-27 CAP Strategic Plans have proven to be effective tools for integrated policy implementation, facilitating cooperation among governments, stakeholders, and civil society. The new delivery mechanism introduced in 2023 offers a policy- and performance-based approach, increasing flexibility and responsibility for Member States to address local specificities within a common EU framework. Building on this experience, there is an opportunity to further streamline the CAP's implementation and to increase synergies and flexibility within and with other spending areas.
In the context of the MFF legislative proposals for 2028-2034, this proposal dedicated to agriculture is justified by the specificities of the CAP. While the future CAP will align with the streamlined delivery mechanisms for EU spending programmes under the new MFF and its programming and delivery will be part of the National and Regional Partnership Fund and plans, this proposal lays down specific rules which are needed to steer the CAP towards:
·Contributing to a more targeted income support for farmers and their long-term competitiveness, directing support towards farmers that actively contribute to food security, towards the economic vitality of the farms and specific sectors and the preservation of the environment, while enabling access to complementary sources of income.
·Improving the attractiveness of the profession and fostering generational renewal, helping the access of young people and those entering in the profession, including though promoting skills development, better access to capital and better working conditions.
·Enhancing the role of the farming and forest sector for climate action, ecosystem services provision, the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources, by rewarding farmers who work with nature and incentivising a move towards more sustainable production methods which are adapted to the local conditions, and delivering the right balance of investments, incentives and requirements.
·Improving resilience, ability to cope with crises and risks, providing stronger and more targeted incentives for farmers to reduce their vulnerability and exposure to risks including through adaptation ad the farm level and diversification of production, promoting more ambitious transformation changes in places where business as usual is not sustainable in the longer term, and strengthening the link between prevention and crisis management.
·Accelerate innovation, enhancing access to knowledge and accelerating the digital transition for a thriving agriculture sector through strengthening agricultural knowledge and innovation systems including access to impartial and qualified advisory services, targeted training, fostering the wider uptake of digital solutions.
·Enhancing working conditions and life in rural areas, by offering relief services and support for cooperation, business development, value added and projects allowing rural development.
In achieving these objectives, the proposal aims to realise the full potential of strategic planning through a simpler and more flexible policy framework that enhances synergies and complementarities across sectors. The new Multiannual Financial Framework provides an opportunity for the EU budget spending for agriculture to be more impactful. Building on the current system based on strategic plans, the programming will benefit from a further evolution while ensuring the coherence and synergies with the common framework provided by the full set of MFF proposals, particularly the Commission proposals for a Regulation establishing the National and Regional Partnership Fund for the period 2028-2034 (‘NPRF Regulation’), the proposal for a Regulation on Common performance framework (‘Performance Regulation’), the proposal for a European Competitiveness Fund and the proposal for a Research Framework Programme. As regards pre-accession support, the proposal for a Global Europe will prepare candidate countries by putting in place the required structures for their agriculture systems to gradually align with the CAP.
• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
This proposal is fully consistent with the CAP TFEU objectives. It modernises the way the TFEU provisions are implemented, in line with the orientations of the MFF 2028-2034, the Vision for agriculture and food and the simplification efforts, while adapting to current challenges.
Inhoudsopgave
·to increase agricultural productivity by promoting technical progress and by ensuring the rational development of agricultural production and the optimum utilisation of the factors of production, in particular labour;
·thus to ensure a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, in particular by increasing the individual earnings of persons engaged in agriculture;
·to stabilise markets;
·to assure the availability of supplies;
·to ensure that supplies reach consumers at reasonable prices.
• Consistency with other Union policies
Agriculture is a major contributor to the EU global competitiveness. The Union is a large importer of commodities and an export champion for valuable agriculture and food products and has therefore an impact on food systems outside the Union. The proposal, in line with Article 208 TFEU, takes into account the Union development cooperation’s objectives of poverty eradication and sustainable development in developing countries, in particular by ensuring that Union support to farmers has no or minimal trade effects.
Agriculture and forestry cover 84% of the Union territory. The sector both depends on and influences the state of the environment. CAP specific objectives naturally include environmental and climate action. For example, the CAP contributes to climate adaptation and water resilience, such as flood risk mitigation and water management through landscape restoration, while also supporting biodiversity and conservation initiatives. Similarly, the CAP can support renewable energy projects and bioeconomy, thus contributing to the EU’s energy transition and circularity objectives.
The proposal puts a strong focus on supporting young farmers and promotes generational renewal, in line with the Commission’s focus on youth.
The CAP supports income for farmers and thus contributes to the enhancement of social objectives and policies in several important ways: targets farmers most in need, supports the diverse socio-cultural characteristics of EU rural areas, including job creation and good workers conditions in farming and rural areas. It is necessary to protect final beneficiaries and ensure predictability for the income support component of the CAP and to target and steer the support efforts, which this regulation provides for. Finally, the CAP finances skills and knowledge to support farmers in their socio-economic, green and digital transition. Strengthened agricultural education, lifelong learning opportunities, and peer-to-peer. With the new structure it can better align its instruments with the national training systems and research programmes.
Agriculture has a direct link with the “one health” concept. In this respect, the proposal provides a set of instruments that aim at ensuring high quality food production, reducing use of pesticides and antimicrobials, improving animal welfare conditions, as well as biosecurity measures at farm level to prevent outbreaks of pests and animal diseases.
The CAP contributes to cohesion and the right to stay by fostering a diverse and resilient rural economy in rural areas, supporting for example business opportunities, agro-tourism, infrastructure, and the bioeconomy via its LEADER strategies. This aligns with the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas goals, emphasizing economic diversification in rural environments for farmers.
Like in other sectors, agriculture and rural areas should make better use of innovation to enhance competitiveness, sustainability and resilience. New technology and knowledge, in particular digital technologies, improve resource efficiency. The proposal reinforces the links to research policy by putting the organisation of knowledge exchange prominently in the policy delivery model. The CAP and the EU research and innovation policy can significantly enhance agricultural sector competitiveness and resilience. Similarly, the emphasis placed on digitisation allows linking up to the EU Digital and AI Agenda, but also limit reporting burden.
There are many opportunities for synergies between the CAP and other EU policies, that the new planning mechanism will allow to better exploit.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
• Legal basis
Article 38 TFEU empowers the Union to define and implement a common agriculture policy. Article 39 TFEU sets the objectives of the CAP, which include the increase of agricultural productivity, a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, stabilise markets, assure the availability of supplies and that these supplies reach consumers at reasonable prices.
The legal basis for this proposal is Article 43(2) TFEU.
• Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides for shared competence for agriculture between the Union and the Member States, while establishing a common agricultural policy with common objectives and a common implementation.
In the current delivery model, the Union has moved towards setting the basic policy parameters (objectives of the CAP, broad types of intervention, basic requirements), while Member States take greater responsibility and are more accountable for how they meet the objectives and achieve agreed targets. In this framework, the proposal for the CAP post-2027 continues to ensure a level playing field among Member States and farmers in the single market, guaranteeing food security throughout the Union, and addressing challenges of a cross-border and global nature.
In line with the Vision for Agriculture and Food and seeing the Union's highly diversified farming environment with different physical parameters, a one-size-fits-all approach is not suitable to delivering the desired results. A greater level of integration with various policies and flexibility for Member States will make it possible to better take into account local conditions and needs. Member States will be in charge of tailoring CAP interventions to maximise their contribution to Union objectives, based on recommendations from the Commission.
• Proportionality
The economic, environmental and social challenges facing the EU's farming sector and rural areas require a substantial response and a lasting effort which does justice to the EU dimension of those challenges. The CAP policy framework is accompanied by a robust and commensurate budget in the NRPF. The greater power of choice offered to Member States in selecting and adapting available policy tools within the CAP to meet EU common objectives, is proportionate to the level of action required in the face of needs and challenges.
• Choice of the instrument
The Common agricultural policy has its legal basis in Articles 42-43 TFEU and has shown over more than 60 years of history that it remains relevant, necessary and is evolving over time. A well targeted policy, providing the right steer will ensure the right conditions for farmers and rural areas to strive and ensure food security and generational renewal in a sustainable way.
The legal act sets out the specific policy aspects genuine to the CAP, its focus and its steer, creating rights for and obligations on Member States and final beneficiaries. Due to its long-term and strategic nature, and the nature of its expenditure being income support, investments and cooperation an integrated but self-standing legal basis is justified. Taking into account the overall MFF governance system, the most appropriate vehicle to operationalize the proposed framework is a dedicated regulation on the Common Agriculture Policy, which complements the proposed NRPF Regulation and Performance Regulation with specific provisions applicable to Common Agriculture Policy. It works together with the CMO, as in the past.
3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
• Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
In November 2023, the Commission published a report on the joint efforts of all the CAP Strategic Plans in the EU Member States (under the currently applicable Regulation (EU) 2021/2115) highlighting some key elements:
·The new CAP Strategic Plans are an appropriate tool to pursue the CAP policy objectives;
·The CAP Strategic Plans show continued support for farm income, economic sustainability and resilience of the agricultural sector;
·There is a need to reinforce risk management tools and their increased uptake across the Union through EU or national schemes;
·The plans are greener than in the previous CAP period; but there is more potential to contribute to climate change mitigation, in particular by enhancing carbon sequestration, while climate adaptation challenges call for a more holistic and longer-term approach that requires relevant management practices and investment;
·There is progress on sustainable management of natural resources, in particular on soil and reducing dependency on chemical inputs;
·More holistic approaches to specific sectors will be needed, encompassing their economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities and benefits: for example, enhancing the positive influence of extensive livestock systems on biodiversity, carbon sequestration, landscapes, cultural heritage and rural livelihoods;
·And, lastly, the overall situation also depends on elements outside the CAP, as well as on other external factors such as the evolution of markets and consumer preferences.
In that overview report summarising the collective ambition and joint effort of Member States, the Commission considered that additional attention is particularly needed on the following areas: reinforcing skills, training and advisory capacity at all levels; fostering exchanges of good practices to better guide Member States and stakeholders; reducing the administrative burden of specific interventions; and monitoring implementation and results (as well as adjusting CAP Strategic Plans where necessary).
• Stakeholder consultations
The Commission actively engaged with stakeholders in the preparation of the MFF initiatives.
A strategic dialogue on the future of EU agriculture was launched in January 2024, bringing together 29 key stakeholders from the European agri-food sectors, civil society, rural communities and academia to reach a common understanding and set a vision for the future of EU's farming and food systems. The Strategic Dialogue highlighted the need to continue providing socio-economic support targeted to the farmers who need it most; promoting positive environmental, social, and animal welfare outcomes for society; and invigorating enabling conditions for rural areas. It found that reaching the EU’s objectives in terms of agriculture and food production, rural development, climate neutrality, and biodiversity restoration requires a dedicated and commensurate budget that matches all ambitions in a balanced and equal importance. Such principle is essential for making the transition economically profitable, promoting generational renewal, invigorating rural areas and supporting farms at a competitive disadvantage, yet essential for agricultural diversity in the EU.
Furthermore, in the framework of the recently established European Board for Agriculture and Food (EBAF), bringing together organisations representing the farming community, other actors of the food supply chain, and civil society, a dedicated discussion took place on 19 May 2025 and on 19-20 June 2025 on how to better target direct payments and move from conditions to incentives in the CAP post-2027.
Additional inputs on the future of the CAP were collected through dedicated meetings organized in the framework of existing EU stakeholders' platforms and ad-hoc technical workshops bringing together EU stakeholders and Member States.
• Collection and use of expertise
In order to gather evidence and knowledge from experts on CAP-related issues a set of technical workshops were organised between December 2023 and May 2024. These workshops allowed to exchange views between EU stakeholders, Member States and Commission services, and to advance in the formulation of the key conclusions and issues to take into account in the modernisation and simplification process of the CAP.
The first workshop on resilience concluded on the need to strengthen risk management tools at farm level and risk sharing opportunities along the value chain, with a more holistic approach, including on prevention. A second workshop focused on food security, a third workshop on sustainability concluded with a broad support on the need to help farmers in testing new innovations, more independent advice. A fourth workshop on CAP governance and performance confirmed the overall support for the new delivery model of the CAP, participants called on the need of stability, flexibility and simplification (especially for farmers); explore more voluntary approaches; increase the ability to respond to external shocks; proportionality in controls and penalties. A last workshop focused on solidarity and rural areas and highlighted a general support to ensure more integrated policy responses, essential for the breadth of rural challenges, CAP cannot do it all, best practices exist but are not picked up, and the need for more capacity building for administrations and simpler frameworks.
A Commission foresight project on digital transition for farmers and rural communities included a series of participatory workshops with stakeholders, between March 2022 and May 2023. The Commission participated, alongside the Member States, in the foresight exercise undertaken by the Spanish Presidency on Open Strategic Autonomy, that included agri-food as part of four strategic sectors.
Finally, an implementation dialogue in June 2025 chaired by Commissioner Hansen allowed to identify priorities to improve the current CAP instruments.
• Impact assessment
The proposal was informed by the impact assessment carried out in the context of the MFF 2028-2034 Commission NPRF proposal, which evaluated options for the NPR plan's design, focusing on two key aspects: the delivery model, which determines how funds are disbursed, and the management mode, which governs how EU spending is implemented and overseen.
The impact assessment evaluated options for integrating the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) into a single plan.
Option 1 (CAP outside of the NPR Plans) would be building on the expertise gained from implementing the current CAP Strategic Plans. This approach would ensure continuity, allow for manageable changes, and clarify responsibilities at the Union and national levels.
The further integration of CAP would bring further simplification and greater synergies in achieving the policy’s objectives and ensure predictability for beneficiaries. On the other hand, a one-fund approach for the future CAP, while allowing for targeted support, would limit the ability to address emerging or unforeseen needs and changing priorities. However, to enhance efficiency, there is potential for additional harmonization of key policy design aspects, such as monitoring, performance, and audit systems, across the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). This would create synergies in administrative procedures, reducing costs for Member States.
In contrast, the impact assessment shows that fully integrating the CAP (Option 2b) would necessitate introducing specific rules to ensure the integrity of the single market and fair competition among farmers, particularly for instruments directly supporting farm income, such as direct payments, which are crucial for farmers' livelihoods.
According to the impact assessment having one plan per Member State would ensure more coherent programming, reflecting national and regional needs while supporting Union priorities. A single envelope per Member State would enable efficient and flexible allocation of funding, allowing for easy reallocation of resources to address new priorities or challenges. Overall, the impact assessment concludes that a broader scope and integrated management approach would bring significant benefits, including increased coherence, simplicity, and flexibility.
• Regulatory fitness and simplification
Simplification is an overarching priority of the Commission with the aim to reduce burden and over complexity and favour speed and flexibility.
The number of provisions relating to the common agricultural policy has been drastically reduced, and coherence achieved between the relevant articles in the NRPP, the CAP regulation and the Common market organisation regulation. Overall, the level of detail and number of requirements is reduced while emphasis is put on provisions essential for the functioning of the CAP legal framework. This leads not only to a reduction in the overall number of provisions but also improves the overall quality of the legislation and reduces its complexity, while providing more flexibility for Member States to adjust the common CAP instruments to their specific needs and challenges.
By integrating interventions from the current two-fund structure (EAGF and EAFRD), the proposal aligns tools for competitiveness, resilience, innovation, and sustainability objectives, allowing them to work jointly towards better outcomes. This alignment not only enhances the effectiveness of the support available but also brings greater flexibility and simplification to its management, ultimately leading to more efficient and targeted interventions for farmers and authorities alike. This increased flexibility gives Member States room to design, plan and implement the tools for CAP support in the way that best addresses the specific needs of the sector.
·simplification of conditionality (farm stewardship). Reduction in the number of types of interventions (many merged e.g. eco-schemes and agri-env-climate commitments, significant reduction of schemes in direct payments), improved focusing of the types of interventions, key requirements only in the Regulation;
·offering more lump sums. This will allow for simplified application procedures that will reduce the burden for beneficiaries and administrations.
·Single fund: no complex rules about transfers, no separate sets of rules for each fund Moving the burden of control from Paying agencies to existing national control competent bodies thus reducing the risks for multiple control checks on farm;
·the proposal also aligns timelines for payments, removing rigidities while ensuring timely payments to farmers, thus allowing a closer link to the actual implementation of interventions.
• Fundamental rights
This proposal respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as laid down in the Commission proposal for NPRF Regulation. The provisions of that proposed Regulation concerning respect of fundamental rights and the rule of law will apply also to the support for common agriculture policy.
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
In order to reap the benefits of the national and regional partnership planning, the Commission proposal on the multiannual financial framework for 2028-2034 (insert reference) includes the common agricultural policy in the NRPF. A significant part of the Fund is dedicated to income support for agriculture, which is ringfenced with a minimum of EUR 293.7 billion from the allocations of the Fund, in order to provide stability and predictability of support for beneficiaries.
This funding can be augmented within the NRPF by synergetic programming of actions that serve more than one objective, such as agro-energy, skills and social infrastructure, water or connectivity, to give just a few examples. Furthermore, the NRPF Regulation will provide funding for promotions of agricultural products, crisis interventions and the unity safety net (integrating the current agricultural reserve) under the Facility to the tune of EUR 6.3 billion, as well as the funding part of the technical assistance for e.g. networks or monitoring. .
Funding for agriculture can benefit from projects under the European Competitiveness Fund and remain an integral part of the European Research Framework Programme, under their windows for Health, Agriculture and Bioeconomy to support research and innovation in food, agriculture, rural development and the bioeconomy. The combination will allow to preserve the tools currently available, for use in an optimised way.
Details on the financial impact of the CAP proposal are set out in the financial statement accompanying the NRPP proposal.
5. OTHER ELEMENTS
• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
This initiative will be monitored through the performance framework applicable for the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework, which is set out in the proposal for a Regulation [performance regulation]. The performance framework provides for an implementation report during the implementation phase of the programme, as well as a retrospective evaluation to be carried out in accordance with Article 34(3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 1 . The evaluation shall be conducted in accordance with the Commission's Better Regulation Guidelines and will be based on indicators relevant to the objectives of the Fund.
• Explanatory documents (for directives)
Not applicable.
• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal
This proposal is part of the MMF 2028-2034 package, including NRPF Regulation and Performance Regulation which provide funding, the framework for horizontal principles, rules on the management of the NRP Fund, financial framework, general rules concerning the content and approval of the NRP Plans and their governance, as well as the assurance package, we well as the performance framework and monitoring framework.
This proposal complements these general rules with specific rules applying to common agricultural policy and Agriculture chapter of the NRP Plans.
The proposal is also complementary to the rules set out in the proposed Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 2 , which will provide for rules concerning interventions in certain sectors and the school schemes.
Articles 1 and 2 provide for the scope, CAP national recommendations to be adopted and steering. Articles 3 and 4 outline elements of the environmental, climate and social architecture of the CAP including environmental and climate priority areas. Article 5 lists all CAP interventions and sets out provisions concerning Income support interventions. Articles from 6 to 20 outline requirements for CAP interventions as well as provisions for targeting.
Articles 15 and 16 detail provisions related to generational renewal provides for the starter pack for young farmers, consisting of a comprehensive set of interventions aimed at young farmers facilitating entry and establishment of farmers in the agricultural sector. Articles 18, 19, 20 cover other interventions under the CAP funded from the allocations for the NRP Plans. It establishes types of intervention for cooperation, LEADER, support for knowledge sharing and innovation in agriculture, forestry and rural areas and establishes other actions for the CAP.
Article 21 sets out CAP data governance, including provisions on authority in charge of data governance under the CAP.
Articles 22 to 25 contain general and final provisions, including delegation of power to the Commission to supplement this Regulation and implementing powers for the Commission to take measures to derogate from this Regulation to resolve specific problems in cases of a justifiable emergency, Committee procedure and final provisions.