Month: August 2025

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Climate and environment in the Commission’s CAP proposal

There has been considerable speculation since publication of the Commission’s proposals for the MFF and for the CAP 2028-2034 in July for what they might mean for climate and environmental ambition in the next programming cycle. The Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food Communication had underlined that the call in von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines for “a better balance between incentives, investments and regulation” should be interpreted as giving greater flexibility to farmers and shifting from conditions to incentives. To achieve the same level of climate and environmental ambition through a voluntary approach only using incentives implies the need for significant additional resources.… Read the rest

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Horizontal Principles in the Next MFF and Implications for the CAP

Merging the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) into the single National and Regional Partnership (NRP) Fund raises more than just the fungibility of resources between the different priorities in that Fund (though this is largely neutralised for the CAP by ring-fencing a minimum amount for CAP income support and fisheries interventions, for further details see my post on this topic). The CAP is also subject to a new set of management regulations that will have important implications for the governance of the policy.

Elements of governance that are affected include the division of competences between the Commission and Member States under shared management, the preparation, approval and monitoring of the CAP chapter in the NRP Plans, performance monitoring, and the role of partnerships.… Read the rest

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Negotiating the Member State allocations in the next MFF

Negotiations on the EU’s Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) take place within the General Affairs Council of the European Union. Ultimately, the final decisions are taken by the European Council of Heads of State and Government and must also receive the consent of the European Parliament. There are many points of friction, including the overall size of the MFF, its allocation across headings, and the question of own resources and how to finance the budget. Traditionally, there is a specific focus on the pre-allocated amounts as these are a significant determinant of the net balance between receipts and contributions for individual Member States – often referred to as the focus on juste retour in the MFF negotiations.… Read the rest

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Changes proposed to the management of agricultural crises

The term of office of the previous Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski 2019-2024 was dominated by crises, including the COVID pandemic, the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on energy and fertiliser prices, and the impacts of Ukrainian exports of grains and oilseeds on the markets of neighbouring countries. Following the announcement to launch a Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture in December 2023, it was thus not surprising that Wojciechowski speculated on the need for a common crisis intervention instrument in the future CAP with a reinforced budget, proposing that this should form a “third pillar” of the CAP.… Read the rest