`European Parliament Rejects Proposed Revision of the Common Agricultural Policy - Olive Oil Times
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European Parliament Rejects Proposed Revision of the Common Agricultural Policy

By Paolo DeAndreis
Sep. 19, 2025 07:28 UTC
Summary Summary

The European Parliament rejected the European Commission’s pro­posal to revise the Common Agricultural Policy, seek­ing to limit the reform and main­tain the exist­ing sys­tem of farm fund­ing. The rejec­tion came in the form of a non-bind­ing res­o­lu­tion, sig­nal­ing to the com­mis­sion that changes to the CAP would not pass par­lia­men­t’s scrutiny.

The European Parliament rejected the European Commission’s pro­posal for a com­pre­hen­sive revi­sion of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which was set to apply between 2028 and 2034.

The parliament’s stance seeks to limit the scope of the reform while essen­tially pre­serv­ing the exist­ing sys­tem of farm fund­ing.

The CAP is a sig­nif­i­cant com­po­nent of the European Union’s bud­get, pro­vid­ing cru­cial sup­port to farm­ing and play­ing a vital role in European agri­cul­ture.

See Also:EU Commission Approves Updated Terms of Mercosur Trade Deal

The rejec­tion came in the form of a non-bind­ing res­o­lu­tion, a sig­nal to the com­mis­sion that its orig­i­nal pro­posal would not pass parliament’s scrutiny.

MEPs requested that CAP funds remain sep­a­rate from other sec­tions of the European bud­get. Integrating CAP with Cohesion Policy fund­ing was a cor­ner­stone of the commission’s pro­posal.

The plan pro­posed in Brussels aims to com­bine resources for farm­ers with those ded­i­cated to reduc­ing socio-eco­nomic dis­par­i­ties among mem­ber states and regions.

According to the com­mis­sion, this approach would amplify the impact of both poli­cies.

The main dis­pute, how­ever, lies in the commission’s pro­posed revi­sion of the direct pay­ment sys­tem.

Brussels intends to limit the amounts of CAP funds farms can receive based on their sur­face area, with a max­i­mum allowance of €100,000 per farmer.

The pro­posal also seeks to direct more funds to inno­v­a­tive farms, young farm­ers and those oper­at­ing in chal­leng­ing regions.

Such an approach does not match the posi­tion of MEPs, who have called for the cur­rent direct pay­ment sys­tem to be main­tained.

At the same time, the European Parliament has requested an increase in CAP funds and a revi­sion of tax and loan sys­tems to improve access for younger farm­ers.

The gen­er­a­tional issue is cen­tral to the debate: 58 per­cent of European farm­ers are above 55, while only nine per­cent of farm­ers under 40 receive CAP sup­port.

In its rejec­tion, par­lia­ment also called for sim­pli­fied bureau­cracy and eas­ier access to CAP funds.

The European Parliament added that farm­ers should not be forced to adopt advanced, envi­ron­men­tally friendly prac­tices, but instead encour­aged to do so. 

MEPs said the focus should be on the adop­tion of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, advanced water man­age­ment sys­tems and the estab­lish­ment of cir­cu­lar econ­omy mod­els.

Meanwhile, the Council of the European Union, com­posed of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of all mem­ber state gov­ern­ments, has already nego­ti­ated a revi­sion of the pro­posal with the com­mis­sion, aimed at strength­en­ing sim­pli­fi­ca­tion mea­sures.

Unlike the par­lia­ment, how­ever, the coun­cil fully sup­ports the commission’s pro­posal.

Some observers crit­i­cized the parliament’s posi­tion, not­ing that it main­tains the sta­tus quo at a time of cli­mate change and grow­ing chal­lenges for the sec­tor.

“We can­not sup­port any cuts, nor any attempts to nation­al­ize the CAP or merge its fund­ing with other E.U. instru­ments,” said Carmen Crespo, an MEP from the cen­ter-right Popular Party in Spain and the for­mer agri­cul­ture min­is­ter of Andalusia.

“Above all, we must safe­guard and guar­an­tee direct pay­ments to farm­ers; these are the back­bone of their income and the most effec­tive tool to ensure food secu­rity and ter­ri­to­r­ial bal­ance across Europe,” she added.

After the par­lia­ment took its stand in Strasbourg, France, the Brussels-based com­mis­sion is now expected to begin a new round of nego­ti­a­tions. The cur­rent CAP is in place until 2027.

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