The EU’s Vision for Agriculture and Food 

The vision outlines goals for the EU’s competitiveness and sustainability, but critics highlight gaps in climate action and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding. 

On 19 February 2025, the European Commission unveiled its “Vision for Agriculture and Food”, a strategic roadmap aimed at enhancing the EU’s agri-food sector’s attractiveness, competitiveness, and sustainability through 2040. This initiative seeks to address the multifaceted challenges faced by farmers and the broader food industry, emphasising the need for policy simplification, innovation, and digitalisation. 

Here are its key objectives: 

Simplification of regulations: The Commission aims to reduce administrative burdens and streamline complex regulations that have long been a source of frustration for farmers. This includes efforts to make policies more transparent and accessible, particularly benefiting small family farms and young farmers.  

Fair income and support: A significant focus is placed on ensuring that farmers receive equitable compensation. The initiative proposes redistributing subsidies more fairly, moving away from a system where a large portion of funds benefits the wealthiest agribusinesses.  

Alignment of import standards: To protect EU farmers from unfair competition, the strategy includes plans to enforce stricter import standards, particularly concerning hazardous pesticides and animal welfare. This move aims to ensure that imported products meet the same high standards as those produced within the EU.  

Under scrutiny: funding and climate gaps 

While the vision has been welcomed by some within the agricultural community, it has also faced criticism from environmental groups. Concerns have been raised that the emphasis on reducing red tape could potentially weaken essential environmental protections. Additionally, critics argue that the strategy lacks concrete measures to promote sustainable practices, such as transitioning to plant-based diets or increasing environmental payments.  

According to the Copa-Cogeca, the vision overlooks a critical issue: the future of the CAP budget and the resources required to finance these measures. The EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 includes €386.6 billion for farming under the CAP, split into two pillars. First pillar is the European agricultural guarantee fund, which has an allocation of €291.1 billion, to be mainly provided for income support schemes. The second pillar is the European agricultural fund for rural development, with an allocation of €95.5 billion to support rural areas.  

Copa-Cogeca argues that in the current climate, the ongoing debate over CAP financing within the next MFF cannot be ignored. Just before the publication of the vision, Copa-Cogeca warned of the risks associated with merging funds and introducing single budgetary national plans. Yet, today’s vision lacks mention of the CAP budget, and references to the second pillar and its funding are conspicuously absent from the final communication.  

Additionally, climate considerations don’t play a major role in the vision, with underwhelming references to it, states the WWF EU. Although agriculture contributes 11% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions – only slightly less than two decades ago – climate concerns receive limited attention. WWF EU says that regarding environmental preservation, the European Commission aims to enforce existing environmental laws, but it doesn’t mention the Nature Restoration Law. Instead, the vision introduces additional incentives, such as voluntary benchmarking to standardise the assessment of farms’ environmental performance. However, it does not plan to intensify efforts to reduce pesticide and fertiliser use, which poses a serious risk to public health. 

Setting the stage for CAP reform  

The Vision for Agriculture and Food isn’t a game changer for the agri-food sector, nor was it intended to be. But it will shape the discussions around EU agriculture and food, including the CAP reform, from July 2025 onwards. A key question that many are keen to see answered in the coming months will be whether the European Commission includes agricultural funding within the MFF framework. The decisions made in this context will have lasting implications for the future of EU agriculture, sustainability, and food security.