Europe (Europe Brief Newspaper): The European Commission has proposed €300 billion in agricultural support in the next EU long-term budget, aiming to boost sustainability and food security.
Today (Wednesday, July 16), Piotr Serafin, the Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration, revealed the €2 trillion budget for 2028–2034 and stated that he had heard “concerns” regarding the earnings of European farmers.
“The next MFF will be organised around the same core functions of the EU budget – support to member states via national and regional partnership plans, support to beneficiaries and businesses via the competitiveness funds and support to partners via Global Europe.”
The proposals will not overlook our farmers and fishermen; we will quadruple the agriculture reserve and ringfence their revenue with €300 billion for farmers and €2 billion for fishermen.
The European Commission claims that it is putting forward a comprehensive overhaul of the EU budget that will be “more streamlined, flexible, and impactful.
It has detailed that this strategy
“will be implemented through National and Regional Partnership Plans, simpler and more tailored, to maximise the impact of every euro”.
According to the commission, having one single plan per member state “integrating all relevant support measures – whether for workers, farmers or fishermen, cities or rural areas, regions or the national level – ensures a much stronger impact, and a much more efficient use of European funding”.
At a news conference, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, stated that integration and agriculture “remain at the heart of our budget.”
“The budget is larger, it is smarter and it is sharper,”
the president said.
She also stated that the contributions made by member states to the EU budget will stay “constant.”
“We are safeguarding €300 billion for farmers’ income support – this includes the doubled agriculture reserve so all farmers’ livelihoods are protected,”
she added.
CAP received €386.6 billion from the EU budget, which was split between the “two pillars,” in the previous MMF for 2021–2027.
Key elements of the new MFF for 2028–2034, according to the European Commission, would guarantee that income support for farmers and fishers is ringfenced and includes “environmental measures, on-farm investments, support to young farmers, and risk management tools.”
The financial guidelines for rural communities and agriculture will be
“simpler, including on payments, controls, and audits,”
it further stated.
MEPs, however, swiftly criticized the commission’s long-term budget proposal and cautioned that, with debt repayments imminent, a spending cap of 1.26% would necessitate cuts to core programs.
The commission’s draft budget
“does not leave sufficient funds for critical priorities including competitiveness, cohesion, agriculture, defense, climate adaptation, and the investment necessary for a sustainable economy that works for all,”
the European Parliament’s co-rapporteurs on the EU’s long-term budget cautioned.
Proposals to weaken the role of local and regional authorities in managing money and “pitting farmers against regions, or regions against national governments” are another issue that worries MEPs.
Additionally, they have maintained that any new performance-based funding mechanism for member states must have strong parliamentary monitoring and cannot avoid democratic oversight of EU spending.
What are the key political aspects of this proposal?
€300 billion has been ringfenced especially for farmers’ income support, making it impossible for the money to be used for other purposes. This include risk management techniques, direct payments, environmental initiatives, and assistance for young farmers.
In order to increase impact and efficiency, the Commission intends to streamline and combine funds under a new framework known as National and Regional Partnership Plans, which combine investments and reforms in rural development, cohesion policy, and agriculture.
Concerns are raised by farmer organizations in spite of the ringfencing. The pan-European farmers’ group Copa-Cogeca cautions that centralising funding into a single fund would risk diminishing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) protections farmers already get.
The plan also calls for sustainability and a redistribution of subsidies to smaller farms by capping the amount that larger holdings can get.
