Agriculture: EU Court of Auditors criticizes CAP citing risks to funds, amounts and common objectives

Brussels – The European Court of Auditors warns that the European Commission’s proposal for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2028–2034 carries significant risks to the predictability of funding, its overall amount, and key CAP objectives, including fair income for farmers, environmental protection, climate action, and food security.

In an opinion, the EU’s financial watchdog points out that “that complicated planning and adoption arrangements, combined with more complex CAP legal architecture, risk creating uncertainty, thus reducing predictability for beneficiaries and delaying the delivery of funds, and could ultimately undermine the goal of simplification.” In addition, “there could also be some uncertainty, however, as the overall amount of CAP funding will be known only after the national plans under the single fund have been adopted. For the recipients of funds, this could create unpredictability at the planning stage about how much funding they can expect.” 

In July, the Commission presented a draft seven-year EU budget for the period 2028-2034 (the Multiannual Financial Framework, MFF) totalling 2 trillion euros, of which approximately 865 billion is for the Single European Fund, which is the financing vehicle for the CAP – “currently the EU’s largest agricultural spending programme” – based on national plans. “This is the first time since the CAP was founded in 1962 that there would be no specific fund for agriculture,” the Court points out. In addition, the Commission’s proposal marks “a major structural change” because it “does away with the CAP’s traditional two-pillar support: one for farmers and the agri-food sector, and the other for rural development,” it adds. 

In this context, in addition to the “complicated planning and adoption arrangements” which “risk creating uncertainty, thus reducing predictability for beneficiaries and delaying the delivery of funds”, and the possibility that “as the overall amount of CAP funding will be known only after the national plans under the single fund have been adopted,” according to the Court of Auditors, “further uncertainty stems from a lack of clarity about which CAP interventions should be based on outputs and which on milestones and targets, potentially leading to inconsistency between EU countries.“

For these reasons, “given the extent of the proposed changes and the flexibility afforded to EU countries when preparing their national plans, it is difficult to make realistic estimates of any impact the Commission’s proposals are likely to have on national spending allocations.” Furthermore, the Court warns that “greater flexibility for EU countries should not jeopardise the CAP’s common objectives, such as a fair income for farmers, environmental care and climate action, and food security”, while the new framework “could create an uneven playing field for farmers and negatively affect fair competition and the functioning of the internal market.” Therefore, the watchdog warns Brussels: “To mitigate this risk, the Commission will need to play its strengthened steering role effectively.”