• On 13 May, the Council formally adopted a targeted review of certain aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
• This review responds to complaints made by farmers in recent months and reflects the impact of geopolitical events (Russian invasion of Ukraine) and extreme weather events.

On March 15, the European Commission (EC) proposed to review certain provisions of the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) relating to two areas:

• Conditionality or “Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions” (GACE) .
• Measures to improve the position of farmers in the food supply chain .

These amendments include reducing controls on farmers to minimize administrative burdens and offering greater flexibility to meet certain environmental conditions. The EC also plans to add short- and medium-term measures—to those already in place—to improve farmers' position in the food supply chain.

This revision was formally and definitively approved by the European Commission on 13 May and calls for the review of certain elements of the Regulation on the CAP Strategic Plans and the Regulation on the financing, management and monitoring of the CAP (the "Horizontal Regulation").

The new text seeks a balance between maintaining the environmental sustainability contained in the current CAP and the demands of farmers.

And now what?

The new law will be signed by representatives of the Council and the European Parliament. It will then be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU) and will enter into force on the day following its publication, at the end of May.

The agricultural sector will be able to retroactively apply some of the new regulations related to environmental conditionalities for the 2024 application year.

The new CAP applications were voted on by the European Parliament on April 24, 2024, paving the way for their final adoption by the Council on May 13.

New measures

Reducing the bureaucratic burden on EU agricultural workers and providing the CAP with greater flexibility to meet certain environmental conditions involves the following measures:

• A reduction of up to 50% in the number of farm visits by national authorities when carrying out inspections.
• €98 billion allocated to voluntary actions that promote environmental, climate, and animal welfare objectives.
• Agricultural farms of less than 10 hectares are exempt from controls and sanctions related to compliance with environmental conditionality requirements.
• The change in the requirement to maintain permanent pasture (BCAM 1) to address structural changes in agriculture, particularly when farmers no longer have livestock.
• A modification to the concept of "force majeure and exceptional circumstances" when applying for CAP aid for farmers affected by severe drought or flooding.
• The increase in the number of modifications allowed each year in the CAP Strategic Plans so that Member States can adapt their support measures more easily to different unforeseen circumstances.
• Simplification of the approval process for amendments to the CAP Strategic Plans.