European Commission proposes to increase support and simplify administration for the EU agricultural sector

The European Commission (EC) presented on Wednesday a package of measures to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy, aimed, among other things, at reducing the administrative burden, speeding up crisis response and meeting the sector’s investment needs.

“The changes could save up to €1.58 billion per year for farmers and €210 million for national administrations, while making payments, certain requirements and crisis instruments more flexible and easier to administer,” the EC said in a communication.

The document explains that the initiative is part of a broader effort to simplify administrative processes in the EU, supporting the competitiveness, sustainability and digitalization of the agricultural sector, young and organic farmers.

The proposal would double and simplify the payment procedures for state aid to small farmers, simplify environmental requirements and their enforcement, improve crisis management, simplify procedures for national administrations, work on increasing competitiveness and implement digitalization.

The bill will be submitted to the European Parliament and the EU Council for discussion and adoption of the relevant regulation.

In recent years, discontent among agricultural producers has been brewing in various sectors of the EU agricultural sector with the inflexible rules established in Brussels, which poorly took into account local production conditions. The situation was aggravated by duty-free imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, which significantly alarmed the markets of a number of EU countries.

The heated situation sometimes resulted in active protests. Mass demonstrations by agricultural producers against EU legislation took place in 2024 in many countries of the union. The protests affected Brussels, among others.

All this prompted the Brussels bureaucracy to simplify the common agricultural policy, promising the industry additional support and improved flexibility.

Tags: EU, agricultural sector