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On the eve of the negotiation of the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) scheduled for July, the Ministers of Agriculture of twenty European Union Member States have sent a joint letter to the European Commission in which they call for the maintenance of an “autonomous, independent, and strategic” Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The letter, addressed to the Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud, and Public Administration, Piotr Serafin, and copied to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, was signed by the heads of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Spain.
In their joint statement, the signatory countries underline the CAP's key role in multiple areas: guaranteeing food security, ensuring a dignified standard of living for the farming community, preserving European social cohesion, maintaining activity in rural areas, and promoting environmental sustainability.
The ministers insist that the CAP must continue to be based on its two traditional pillars: direct aid and rural development, with a good financial endowment and its own legal and institutional personality, separate from other Community policies. Direct aid is essential for the income of farmers and livestock producers, especially in an unstable geopolitical context, while rural development measures allow investments in modernization, innovation, infrastructure, and sustainability.
In addition, they demand a solid and stable budget that reflects the strategic importance of the agricultural sector in the current challenges of the EU, such as adaptation to climate change, market volatility, or generational succession on farms. They consider it essential that the professionals of the field are actively involved in the design and implementation of this essential policy for the future of the sector.
June 5, 2025/ MAPA/ Spain.
https://www.mapa.gob.es
