Month: May 2026

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The Commission’s proposal to replace the ‘active farmer’ definition appears more bureaucratic

There are two parallel debates taking place in this CAP reform round under the general rubric of targeting, or who deserves support. One issue is around the definition of an active farmer. The other is that support should be targeted on farmers in need. In this post, I want to focus on the changes proposed by the Commission in the way active farmers are defined.

Active farmers in the current Regulation are a sub-set of all farmers. Only active farmers are eligible to receive direct payments (decoupled and coupled payments). While we can use the concept ‘active farmer’ which was introduced in the current CAP Strategic Plans Regulation as a shorthand, its specific implementation has changed in the proposal for the post-2027 CAP.

Active farmers in the CAP Strategic Plan Regulation

Under the current CAP Strategic Plans Regulation, the distinction is made between a farmer and a beneficiary of direct payments.… Read the rest

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Enabling Ukrainian EU membership

For this post, I have used OpenAI’s GPT-5.3 model, May 2026 to help with identifying sources, summarising material, and drafting. The use of large language models in academic and policy-oriented writing remains contested, particularly where issues of authorship, reliability, and originality arise. I have used the model as a research aid rather than a substitute for judgement. Sources identified through the model have been independently checked, and the text has been revised to reflect my own interpretation and emphasis. The purpose of this blog is also partly heuristic: writing serves to organise my own thinking, with the model functioning as a tool in that process. Readers who prefer not to engage with material developed in this way may reasonably choose to look elsewhere, but I hope that the curation, verification, and synthesis undertaken here provide value beyond what a generic model output would deliver. As always, feel free to add your comments to let me know your views on this.… Read the rest

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Assessing the Commission’s CAP proposal: presentation

I was pleased to make a presentation yesterday as part of the series of webinars organised by the European Association of Agricultural Economists for its members, examining the Commission’s proposal for the next CAP. The presentation focused on five topics, recognising that several important issues could not be covered due to time constraints.

The topics were:

•Reflections on the CAP budget in the 2028-2034 period

•Reflections on CAP governance under the Commission proposal

•The future of direct payments

•The future of the CAP’s green architecture

•The future of rural development

My argument on the budget is that it is possible that the overall CAP budget will match the current CAP budget in current prices, as the Commission has argued, but there will be an important redistribution between Member States. This will reflect both their political willingness to transfer additional amounts from their NRP Fund allocation to top up their CAP minimum amounts for income support, but also their structural ability to do so.… Read the rest