Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2027

The EU Youth Test at the EESC is being applied to this opinion. Rural Youth Europe was chosen by a group of interested youth organisations to represent all of them during the opinion-making process.

Key points

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC):

• rejects the Commission's proposal. It has no directional purpose, clear objectives or long-term vision for EU agriculture other than imposing a major CAP budget cut;
• highlights the risks associated with agricultural and cohesion investments having to compete for funds in the new budget construction;
• calls for an increased, standalone and dedicated CAP budget, properly adjusted for inflation and restored to a level of 0.5% of EU GDP. This should include a more ambitious ringfenced allocation for rural areas, and a strong budget allocation for generational renewal strategies and targeted support measures for new young entrants and female farmers;  
• considers that direct payments should be capped at a fair and reasonable level for individual active farmers, supporting the mandatory threshold of EUR 100 000 as proposed by the European Commission, and that the Commission should not discriminate against genuine active farmers based on old age or pension status in the allocation of direct payments, but should rather incentivise targeted financial schemes to facilitate the transfer of the farm ownership from older farmers and pensioned farmers to young farmers;
• stresses the need for the CAP to complement the principle of equivalence of standards, recognising that European farmers adhere to much higher environmental, social and health standards than those applied in other countries;
• encourages protective science-based climate and environmental practices and sustainable, holistic systems of production such as organic and regenerative farming and other agroecological systems, through voluntary, sufficiently funded initiative measures;
• supports strengthening the EU food supply chain in terms of rebalancing power in the food supply chain, the abolition of below-cost selling, crisis-proofing with improved and additional crisis management tools and insurance schemes against natural disasters;
• recognises the importance of consolidating social conditionality and assuring a clear link with the CAP proposals. No farm should be exempt from controls and penalties relating to social conditionality, and its overall integrity must not be undermined because of the fact that fines are set under national law.