CAP simplification package: Omnibus on Agriculture [EU Legislation in Progress]

Written by Nikolina Šajn.

CONTEXT

Two and a half years since the new rules on the common agricultural policy (CAP) started to apply, the Commission is amending them for the second time. The proposal comes just weeks before the Commission aims to make a separate proposal for the CAP rules that would be in force after 2027. While the first package of amendments, adopted in July 2024 after widespread farmer protests, lowered some of the environmental conditionality requirements and did away with the conditionality controls and penalties for farms under 10 hectares, this current package tackles further stakeholder complaints of overly complex CAP rules and procedures. It aims to offer more flexibility regarding the environmental requirements, greater use of simplified payments for small and medium-sized farms, less bureaucracy for organic farms, simpler procedures for supporting farms affected by climate change and severe weather, and less red tape for the national authorities. After the adoption of the final act, Member States would still need to amend their CAP strategic plans before they can apply the new rules. For the changes to be implemented in 2026, the final act would have to be adopted well before the end of 2025.

Legislative proposal

2025/0236(COD) – Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 as regards the conditionality system, types of intervention in the form of direct payment, types of intervention in certain sectors and rural development and annual performance reports and Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 as regards data and interoperability governance, suspensions of payments annual performance clearance and controls and penalties – COM(2025) 236, 14 May 2025.

Read the complete briefing on ‘CAP simplification package: Omnibus on Agriculture‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.