Honourable Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries of the European Union,
The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) is a confederation of unions and organisations of peasant farmers, small and medium-scale farmers, and agricultural workers across Europe. We currently comprise 28 national and regional peasant farmer organisations from 20 European countries.
We are contacting you because you will be discussing the EU post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy in a policy debate of the forthcoming Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 22 and 23 June.
ECVC recalls that agriculture and food systems are central to both European and global challenges. Geopolitical conflicts, severe climate disruption, dependence on imported inputs and energy, zoonotic outbreaks and recurring global pandemics demonstrate the urgent need for strong democratic and political responses. Food supply systems are strategic infrastructures. In times of crisis or war, access to food becomes both essential and vulnerable. The European Union therefore bears a responsibility to adopt ambitious public policies capable of ensuring food sovereignty, resilient agricultural systems and fair livelihoods for farmers.
ECVC calls on you to maintain a strong policy stance on market regulation and remunerative prices to support smallholder farming and maintain the resilience of European and global food systems.
Farmers need fair prices that remunerate their work appropriately
Farmer incomes are 28% lower than average incomes in other sectors, and they are particularly low among small and medium farmers. This demonstrates that the CAP has failed to achieve its core objective of guaranteeing fair livelihoods for farmers. The CAP must guarantee farmers’ incomes primarily through remunerative prices for agricultural production, rather than through incentives, including encouraging diversification away from food production (e.g., activities that do not produce food, such as energy production, carbon farming, or the bioeconomy).
The Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation, which belongs to the CAP, must include Strategic public stocks to stabilise markets and protect farmers from market instability by securing their income. The regulation must organise the purchase of surpluses and the release of food in case of high demand, as is currently done in India and China. These stocks must also play a role in prioritising agroecological farming.
The CMO must have intervention prices updated to at least 80% of the average production costs in each sector. It must also extend the number of sectors it concerns.
ECVC considers that private insurance mechanisms have demonstrated major structural limitations.
These systems primarily benefit private interests, cover only a minority of farmers, fail to address the diversity of production systems and do not adequately respond to increasing climatic hazards.
ECVC supports establishing a dedicated facility fund within the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) to make payments to farmers in times of crisis.
Farmers need support, agriculture requires youth and environmental ambition
First of all, the definition of “active farmer” should be based on the UNDROP framework. It must:
- a) include natural persons who hold an agricultural status, who actually carry out agricultural work in the fields to produce food, regardless of the size of their farm; legal entities in which at least 51% of the capital is held by natural persons who actually carry out agricultural work; and
- b) exclude persons who do not carry out agricultural work, who earn ––outside of their agricultural activity— three times the country's median income, in particular those holding companies and other enterprises where the actual beneficiaries of the aid are not farmers.
A natural person who justifies their agricultural activity through a legal entity may declare only one legal entity for CAP purposes to limit artificial legal arrangements (holdings).
- The EU needs more youth to start a farming activity. There should be a minimum budget allocated to young and new entrants, but not more than 6%. The maximum age threshold for young farmers should be increased from 40 to 45 years. There should be an extension of degressive support mechanisms to new entrants. ECVC calls for reducing the maximum limits for start-up aid to less than 300,000 euros, as the current limits are too high and favour a small number of large projects. Redistributive support for small and medium sized farms owned by youth should be reinforced.
- It is fundamental to maintain strong social conditionality, including monitoring and sanctions. ECVC would like to remind everyone that agricultural workers are essential to our agricultural system: more than 10 million workers in Europe, 32% of whom are undeclared, resulting in more than 150,000 work-related accidents each year.
- ECVC supports the progressive dismantling of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and the broader logic of decoupled area based payments. Coupled payments must be preferred, as they are important to suECVC supports the progressive dismantling of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and the broader logic of decoupled area based payments. Coupled payments must be preferred, as they are important to support weakened production and contribute to food sovereignty. The inclusion of grassland in this support is important to maintain these ecosystems, although it must be combined with animal load on land to ensure the presence of animals
ECVC also demands:
- a mandatory capping of EUR 60 000 per active farmer for all CAP payments;
- progressive degressivity below EUR 60 000.
- The capping mechanism should be combined with a reallocation of funds toward smaller farms. ECVC welcomes the continuation of support schemes for small farms and the proposal to make such support mandatory. Small farms contribute significantly to preserving the environment, maintaining a diverse agricultural sector and supporting vibrant rural communities. There should be mandatory annual flat-rate support for small farms, capped at EUR 5000 per active farmer, maintenance of compatibility with Payments Areas of Natural Constraints – ANC, and access for outermost regions to “small farmer” support schemes.
- All CAP payments should be subject to environmental conditions. Given the scale of climate change, the deterioration of the status of water, soil and biodiversity, it is imperative that the CAP combines transitional measures accompanying changes in practices and mechanisms to ensure that the most environmentally and climate-friendly farms can maintain themselves even if their production costs may be higher due to their environmentally friendly methods. ECVC calls for an ambitious ring fenced budget dedicated to climate and environmental measures.
A strong budget
- ECVC demands co-financing of about 10% across all CAP measures to prevent Member States from prioritising certain measures at the expense of others. Member States should not be encouraged to reduce investment in social and environmental measures.
- EU facility fund: ECVC supports the creation of a dedicated facility fund within the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) for payments to farmers in times of crisis.
For more information, please read our “Position paper on the Post 2027 CAP negotiations | Towards food sovereignty as a response to systemic crises”.
We remain available for any enquiry, concern or comments you may have.
Sincerely,
The European Coordination Via Campesina