The current CAP foresees outlays of €387 billion in the seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) that runs to 2027. That represents more than a third of the overall EU budget — money that critics say preserves the status quo but fails to address the broader, and growing, economic challenges that the bloc faces.
Now, the EU executive appears to be toying with the idea of merging the CAP and some 530 other programs into a single national cash pot that would in turn determine spending on sectors ranging from farm subsidies to social housing. Payouts could then be made conditional on countries carrying out certain reforms, such as promoting organic farming, according to ideas being mooted in Brussels.
Without mentioning specific financial expectations, the agriculture ministers made clear in their conclusions that the EU farm budget “should continue to exist” and should remain an “independent” policy in the distribution of agricultural subsidies, according to the text.
“We made these points for a reason,” Hungarian Agriculture Minister István Nagy told a press conference after a two-day meeting of the AGRIFISH Council in Luxembourg.
“We want to avoid any thinking, any proposal that would take away the dedicated nature of the Common Agricultural Policy,” he said. “If the support and financing of this activity comes into question and can be changed quickly, then food security and farmers’ livelihoods will be damaged.”
Spanish farm chief Luis Planas issued a similar warning on Monday before the ministerial meeting: “If anyone thinks that we can skip the CAP and put everything into one big package, in my opinion, they are wrong,” he said.