Protein plan : the European Commission recognises the strategic role of EU crop-based biofuels
Today’s adoption by the European Commission of the EU Protein Plan, a plan for resilience, strategic autonomy and sustainability of the EU protein system, adopted together with the Livestock Strategy is a positive step forward. Farm Europe particularly welcomes the long awaited recognition, by the European Commission, of the role of “Made in Europe” Biofuels as a major strategic lever for both proteins and energy, those two value chains being inter-connected.
The plan marks a long-awaited recognition that the Union’s dependence on imported high-protein feed is not merely an agricultural issue but a strategic vulnerability. In 2025, only 25.8% of the protein from oilseeds and protein crops used as feed in the EU was sourced domestically, leaving supply chains exposed to geopolitical and market shocks. Against this background, the plan sets a benchmark of 35% of EU-sourced high-protein feed by 2035 and is built on three pillars: expanding sustainable EU protein supply, improving the resilience, competitiveness and preparedness of the wider EU protein system, and strengthening value chains by incentivising demand and promoting local solutions and short supply chains.
The approach underpinning the plan is to be welcome as well : an incentive-based approach that offers farmers a profitable future in producing protein in Europe. However, concrete proposals shall be made in order to truly incentive high value protein supply chains as well as develop a true business model for carbon farming.
In this context, Farm Europe underlines that the cap on EU food and feed crops used in biofuels limit the capacity to foster dual purposes – food and non food – value chains. Moving toward 10% home-grown biofuels would not only offer new market opportunities for farmers, but also help cutting transport emissions by more than 80 million tonnes per year, while allowing to reach 50 million tonnes of inter-connected high value protein products and therefore covering 75% of EU pure protein needs (instead of today’s 25%).
Background
A long awaited protein strategy that paves the way for a new dynamic of investments
1) EXPANDING EU PROTEIN SUPPLY
The plan places incentives for farmers at the heart of the transition. It encourages Member States to mobilise coupled income support, Agri-Environmental and Climate Actions and, as the new transition payments proposed under the future CAP, conceived as de-risking instruments covering the investment and adaptation costs of introducing protein crops into rotations. Farm Europe also welcomes the establishment of a dedicated protein crop sector under the CAP post-2027, with mandatory recognition of producer and interbranch organisations and sectoral interventions supporting investment, innovation, marketing, storage and risk management. With over EUR 190 million already invested in research and innovation on protein crops, strengthened knowledge transfer and advisory services will be essential to turn these investments into results on the ground.
The emphasis on legumes in rotation, which reduce fertiliser needs and greenhouse gas emissions through nitrogen fixation, ensures consistency with the Fertiliser Action Plan. Equally positive is the recognition of the role of grasslands, which contribute to carbon sequestration, reduce dependence on imported feed and help address land abandonment, a growing structural risk for European agriculture. The development of a certification methodology under the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF), covering practices that reduce N2O emissions through the use of leguminous crops, should finally open access to carbon incentives for protein crop farmers.
2) CIRCULARITY AND BIOFUELS
The plan acknowledges that co-products from processed crops account for around 34% of the protein intake of EU livestock, and that co-products from EU energy applications alone represent 47.2% of all oilseed meals used in the Union. This is a decisive recognition of a reality Farm Europe has long highlighted: EU biofuel production and protein autonomy go hand in hand, as the domestic crushing of oilseeds delivers at the same time home-grown energy and high-quality feed protein, within integrated biorefineries anchored in rural territories.
The review of the Renewable Energy Directive should assess how to increase the production of home-grown sustainable biofuels, protein crops and feedstocks. Farm Europe calls on the Commission to translate this commitment into a stable and ambitious post-2030 framework for crop-based biofuels and integrated biorefineries, which remain the most immediate lever to reduce simultaneously the EU’s protein and energy dependencies. The up-coming energy omnibus should also be an opportunity to increase the potential of this value chains without waiting until 2030.
3) RESILIENCE OF SUPPLY CHAINS: PRODUCE FIRST, DIVERSIFY SECOND
The plan’s clear-sighted assessment of the EU’s near-total dependency on imported vitamins and amino acids, concentrated in East Asia, calls for action. The announced study on these dependencies, the exploration of possibilities under the future European Competitiveness Fund to support EU production capacity for feed additives, the continued simplification of feed additive rules in the context of the Food and Feed Omnibus, and the attention given to market transparency, stockpiling and joint procurement within the European Food Security Crisis preparedness and response Mechanism are steps in the right direction.
On trade, the plan is explicit that the objective is not to replace one supplier with another, but to reduce overall dependency while diversifying sources. This logic must translate into a clear hierarchy: EU production first, diversification second. Ukraine was identified as the main partner for diversification, having doubled its production of high-protein crops in recent years. Conversely, consolidating reliance on Mercosur suppliers cannot be the answer to a dependency that the plan itself identifies as a strategic vulnerability.
We also welcome the commitment to better align production standards applying to imported products, in line with the principle of reciprocity, and the plan’s acknowledgement that the EU is among the most efficient global producers of animal protein in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of output, so that reducing EU animal production would largely shift consumption, and emissions, towards more carbon-intensive imports.
4) STIMULATING DEMAND AND EUROPEAN PREFERENCE
On the demand side, the plan mobilises origin labelling through marketing standards for protein crops, the integration of pulses into the upcoming “Buy European” campaign, public procurement based on a “best value” approach rewarding quality and sustainability efforts, and educational measures under the EU school scheme. Farm Europe particularly welcomes the emergence of a genuine European preference dimension, whose absence we regretted in the Livestock Strategy. The commitment to develop voluntary labels or optional reserved terms certifying that livestock products are produced exclusively using EU, national, regional or local feed will further help valorise local feed value chains.
5) GOVERNANCE AND MEANS
The credibility of the plan will ultimately depend on its implementation. The 35% objective is a benchmark rather than a binding target, and the plan is not accompanied by a dedicated budgetary programme: it relies on the mobilisation of existing and future instruments, namely the CAP post-2027, the National and Regional Partnership Plans and the European Competitiveness Fund, complemented by public-private partnerships with financial institutions. Progress will be monitored through annual protein dialogues with Member States and the market observatory for cereals, oilseeds and protein crops. Farm Europe regrets that the level of ambition is not matched by equally firm delivery mechanisms, and calls on Member States to make full use of the available tools, and on the Commission to ensure that the protein dialogues translate into measurable progress on the ground. The negotiations on the next multiannual financial framework will be the first test of this collective ambition.