The fear that the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) would be downgraded after holding such a prominent position in Europe for over 60 years was realised in last week’s proposed EU budget announcement.

Under the proposals, the CAP will no longer stand as an individual entity and will instead be positioned under the new National and Regional Partnership Plan (NRPP).

The proposed guaranteed budget available to agriculture and rural development has been slashed by 22% or over €91bn (including crisis reserve money) when compared to the current structure. As detailed in Figure 1 above, CAP is currently financed by two main funds – the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, which is essentially Pillar I funding, and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, which is Pillar II funding.

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Under the Commission’s proposals, both of these funds are being merged into one CAP fund with ringfenced funding of €295.7bn. There is an opportunity for agriculture to access funding from other funds under the NRPP, with €6.3bn allocated for an EU agriculture reserve, or from the €450bn fund allocated to Economic, Territorial and Social Cohesion Including Fisheries and Rural Communities and Tourism.

However, there will also be many other sectors of society competing to get their hands on this pot of funding and this is the reason for the widespread condemnation of the funding model among the majority of agricultural ministers and many EU parliament members right across Europe.