As the European Union embarks on reforming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2027 and beyond, the challenges facing agriculture are immense. These include geopolitical instability, the rapid decline of small farms, industrial agricultural models taking over, widespread poverty among farmers, monopolization of resources such as water and land, frequent extreme climate events, soil depletion, and rising food insecurity.
The CAP was originally designed to ensure farmers’ incomes, fair food prices for consumers, and market stability. However, these objectives remain largely unmet. The average age of farmers in the EU is 57, and the growing demand for emergency food aid highlights the failure to address rising food insecurity. The upcoming reform must respond to these critical issues.
The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) has outlined a set of recommendations aimed at reorienting the CAP towards food sovereignty and agroecology. The organization emphasizes the importance of maintaining a robust and fair budget dedicated to these goals. The CAP accounts for 31% of the EU’s budget for 2021-2027, amounting to €378.5 billion. ECVC argues that these funds must be directed toward agroecological transitions, food sovereignty, and rural development, ensuring market regulation that stabilizes prices and supports sustainable development across Europe. A higher level of ambition at the EU level is needed to guarantee fairer distribution of direct payments, rather than allowing for greater flexibility among member states.
To strengthen food sovereignty, ECVC calls for a rethinking of the Common Market Organization (CMO), which regulates European agricultural markets. The current model primarily serves the interests of large industrial actors and ignores the environmental and social consequences. The reform must focus on reterritorializing food systems and reclaiming food sovereignty. The CMO should ensure stable, remunerative prices for farmers, regulate production volumes, manage strategic stocks, support agroecological practices, and strengthen crisis prevention policies. Moreover, it should increase import regulation, uphold quality standards for imports, and establish minimum entry prices for agricultural products.
ECVC advocates for a genuine “Common” Agricultural and Food Policy that integrates food production with broader public food policies. The CAP must shift away from incentivizing land use for energy production, such as agrofuels or agrivoltaics, and instead support sustainable food production. The policy should also focus on decentralized agri-food systems, relocating processing services like slaughterhouses and milk collection closer to local territories, which would promote local jobs and services, especially in artisanal sectors.
Another key aspect of ECVC’s proposal is a fairer distribution of CAP payments. The organization highlights that the current system disproportionately benefits large farms, with payments often based on farm size or capital investment. ECVC argues for a shift toward targeting payments to those who need them most small and medium-sized farms, as well as new farmers, including both young people and those over 40. Payments should be designed to support farms transitioning to more sustainable models. This could include higher support for new agricultural businesses and stronger social conditionality for agricultural workers.
The reform must also introduce stricter criteria for receiving payments, ensuring that farmers meet minimum environmental standards, such as crop rotation, biodiversity preservation, and the maintenance of non-productive areas. ECVC calls for the introduction of degressive payments and caps on subsidies, ensuring that funds go to active farmers—those who actually work the land and derive their livelihoods from agriculture.
Ultimately, ECVC’s vision for the CAP reform is one that supports agroecological transitions, strengthens food sovereignty, and ensures that CAP payments are more equitably distributed, supporting the sustainability of smaller, diversified farms and fostering a more resilient and equitable agricultural system in Europe.
