Political hotspot April 2025: A new budget for the EU and a new CAP for European farmers
Big changes are upcoming in the EU: while the current multiannual financial framework (MFF) – the EU’s long-term budget – runs until the end of 2027, in July 2025, the Commission will propose comprehensive proposals for the post-2027 MFF. The funding programmes of the MFF provide financial support to a wide range of beneficiaries across the EU, including farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), hence they will have a significant impact on the future of the EU agri-food system.
Simplification is the keyword in the current political discourse, and this tendency is also spreading to the ongoing discussions about the next budget. The main goals of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, are to simplify the budget and make it more efficient. Notably, the Commission is looking at how to reduce the number of different EU funds, which could mean merging some funds and giving more flexibility to Member States. This could have major implications on the budget for agriculture.
According to a leaked internal presentation from autumn 2024, this would mean merging funding from budgets such as Horizon, EU4Health, and Digital, among others, into a big fund called the European Competitiveness Fund. More on the competitiveness fund and its implications on the EU research policy funding in the article ‘Safeguarding an independent FP10: why EU research policy matters for the organic sector.’
Other funds, including the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Regional Development Fund, Cohesion, and Fisheries, could also be merged. If the 1st pillar of the CAP seems to be treated with “special consideration” by the Commission, avoiding the merger, the 2nd pillar (the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) would still be on the line of the merger with the Cohesion Fund. In reaction to this, several agri-food organisations, including IFOAM Organics Europe, signed a letter calling for a dedicated CAP budget. IFOAM Organics Europe believes that a strong and dedicated CAP budget is essential to supporting organic farming, which plays an important role in the transition to more competitive, resilient, and sustainable food systems.
Once the Commission issues its proposal in July 2025, it will go through the Council, where it must be adopted unanimously. It is also subject to the consent of the European Parliament through a special legislative procedure. In the meantime, the Commission is running 7 public consultations on the future of the EU budget, until 6 May. We strongly encourage agri-food stakeholders to give their feedback on the next MFF.
The future of the common agricultural policy
So, what about the CAP? The MFF will have a significant influence since the structure of the future CAP, as well as the expenditure ceilings for the different categories of the MFF, including for the CAP, will already be laid out in the MFF proposal in July. The future CAP proposal will therefore have to fit into the structure of the next budget.
IFOAM Organics Europe recognizes the need for a simplification of the CAP, for farmers and for national authorities, but this should not come at the expense of a transformative shift of the CAP to finance a transition towards sustainable farming systems such as organic and other agroecological practices, as well as supporting farmers’ income and creating a fairer market for farmers. The position of the European organic sector on the new CAP is based on the need to have a CAP fit for the future, in line with the Strategic Dialogue’s conclusion that a transition to sustainable agri-food systems is necessary and there are solutions that work for farmers, nature, and society. Read more on our website and in the IFOAM Organics Europe’s position paper on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. When is the next CAP expected? The proposal for the CAP post 2027 will be published in autumn 2025, and in the meantime, the European Parliament is currently working on an own-initiative report on the future of agriculture and the post-2027 common agricultural policy that will be discussed in September in plenary. The Council already reached its conclusions ‘on a farmer-focused post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy’ in December 2024.
The current CAP
Commissioner Hansen already announced in their Vision for Agriculture and Food published in February, that another simplification package of the CAP will be proposed in the first half of 2025, on the 14th of May. A draft work document leaked in the media exposed a first list of items considered for inclusion in this simplification package by DG AGRI. While it’s still unclear what exactly the simplification package will encompass, according to the leaked draft, organic farmers would be recognized as automatically compliant with certain GAECs (GAEC 1, GAEC 3, GAEC 4 and GAEC 5, and 6). Read more in our article ‘The future and present of the Common Agricultural Policy: What to expect’.
The final simplification package will be officially proposed by the European Commission on the 14th of May and will then go through the European Parliament and the Council likely following the same emergency procedure as the previous one to favour a fast adoption. It is expected that the changes would apply to the claims of 2026 onwards.