CAP reform Archives

While the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is currently being blocked by Germany and Italy, high-profile food corporations are calling for its swift adoption to allow for "coherent and harmonised legislation" at EU level.

In 2022 the area under organic agriculture and the number of producers increased, but the bloc faced a decline in organic food retail sales in 2022, according to the new report of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture.

Tensions over renewed trade benefits to Ukraine were high last week, with the coming week shaping up to be just as fraught. 

After weeks of mobilisation across Europe, farmers' protests seem to have gained a political foothold in the conclusions of the European Council summit on Thursday (1 February) which acknowledged the “concerns raised” by the sector and the “essential role” of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Let’s dive straight into a tour of the EU, dedicated to how the CAP and national policies support farmers coping with the damages caused by extreme weather events.

As nationwide farmers' protests continue, the German government wants to have the market power of supermarkets and the food industry scrutinised, blaming their price-setting power for the poor economic situation of many farms.

Road blockades across the country and growing exasperation from farmers are shaping up to be the first major political test for EU election candidates in France, as they attempt to court the agricultural community.

Amid growing farmers' protests across the EU, the French EU Greens chief on Tuesday (23 January) called for a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that temporarily insures farmers' pay and limitations on free trade deals that could undermine EU farmers' competitiveness.

Current policies are not a sufficient incentive for farmers to do more to achieve the EU climate targets, according to the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) experts, who warned of the need for a carbon pricing system for the sector.

Last week we reported on the EU bubble agri-food sector's long wait (and need) for the launch of a complex and overdue Strategic Dialogue with the EU institutions. The announcement came yesterday.

Re-Imagine Europa think tank (RIE) has launched a booklet with tips for navigating polarised conversations on the highly contentious topic of the new rules on plants’ gene editing, which is due to be voted on by the Parliament's environment committee on 24 January.

As farmers' protests in Germany came to a temporary halt after weeks of rocking the country over planned subsidy cuts, Farmers' Association President Joachim Rukwied said he is pushing for negotiations with the federal government but stressed he wanted results by Thursday evening.

The director of French farming union FNSEA backed the ongoing farmer protests across the border in Germany, adding that while the root causes of the protests are the same, the particulars of the disputes differ across the countries' borders.

As farmers continue to stage huge traffic-blocking protests across Germany, a growing number of voices within the ruling Greens are blaming major supermarket chains' pricing policies for many farms' currently dire economic situation.

Debates and policymaking around agriculture and food are traditionally emotional and often highly polarised, but 2023 saw new levels of gridlocks and drama in EU agrifood policy.

In an interview with Euractiv, French Secretary of State for Biodiversity Sarah El Haïry reflected on the EU's progress this year, following the COP28 summit in Dubai, the adoption of France's national biodiversity strategy as well as the EU's pesticides directive and nature restoration law.

The EU’s promised plans for an overarching sustainable food systems law may not have come to light in Brussels, but that has not stopped actors on the ground across the EU from taking action to make their own vision of a sustainable food future a reality.

The German government’s delicately constructed new federal budget risks being toppled by pushback, including from inside the governing coalition, against planned cuts to diesel tax breaks for farmers.

European Union farming subsidies should be compulsorily capped to cope with the accession of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, according to the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, as discussions heat up about the future shape of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) …

The Commission’s strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture – which will officially be launched in January – will help set the course of discussions on the future shape of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), according to Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski. 

Spain’s re-appointed minister for agriculture, Luis Planas, has promised to continue to prioritise the triangle of "youth and women, water and digitalisation”, signalling that, in his third term in office, he will stick to his established course.

Welcome to Euractiv's Special CAPitals edition of the Agrifood Brief, dedicated to education and training available to farmers across Europe:

Eleven EU member states, including France, are calling for greater "flexibility" in the previously derogated requirement to leave land fallow under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in a proposal that has left the European Commission perplexed.

After EU member states failed to reach a majority for or against the re-authorisation of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, the Commission is now planning to unilaterally authorise it for 10 years. And while there’s still debate over environmental and health …