As the Irish Presidency, aiming to conclude the budget negotiations by the end of December, has circulated a proposed budget negotiating framework ahead of this weekend’s summit of Heads of State and Government, many underlined that the budget for the CAP is “untouched”. Farm Europe firmly denounces this reading which does not match the reality. In the proposal that is being discussed, agriculture is facing sharp cuts which are not reversed by the Irish presidency, on the opposite. While all Member States are calling for more risk management tools and crisis reserve the initial funds proposed by the Commission for agriculture in the EU facility are cut by 30%.

In its proposed negotiating box, Ireland is merely replicating the reduction in the CAP budget proposed by the European Commission, amounting to €293.7 billion in current euros (€261.013 billion in 2025 terms) for a CAP whose scope, as adjusted in the European Commission’s proposal, is retained.

Some President von der Leyen’s January 2026 ideas are proposed to be adopted, without any improvements, others are even in a less explicit form:

•⁠  ⁠The possibility of using two-thirds of the 25 per cent of national NRP allocations normally set aside as a reserve for CAP on the 1st day of the next budget. At European level, this amounts to some 45 billion euros in additional funding that Member States, if they so wish, could mobilise to top up their CAP allocations.

•⁠  ⁠Contrary to the position taken by the Commission President in January 2026, there is no explicit provision for Member States to finance agricultural measures under the Rural Development Fund. The scope of this rural fund, totaling at least €48.9 billion, is broader than that of the CAP’s rural development programme. Member States would therefore have the choice of using a minor or major portion or none of it to supplement CAP measures, without any guarantees for CAP beneficiaries.

•⁠  ⁠In both of the above cases, the Member States’ allocations of €48.9 billion and €45 billion are distributed in accordance with the rules governing the allocation of the single fund outside the CAP, rather than according to the CAP allocation key; there is no change from the proposals put forward by Ursula von der Leyen.

Failing to include, at the very least, the €45 billion anticipated from the use of the reserve in the CAP budget – and all or part of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development – is missed opportunity. This refusal fails to translate into concrete action the political rhetoric calling for greater European agricultural and food sovereignty and to provide farmers with a guarantee of clarity. This is not a matter of finding fresh money, but rather of exercising political responsibility and earmarking these funds for the CAP budget – in short, of moving from rhetoric to action.

Furthermore, the Irish Presidency is proposing to halve the allocations from the EU Facility on which the future European agricultural crisis fund depends, and neither the existence of the fund nor a specific allocation for managing agricultural crises is mentioned in Ireland’s document. At a time when crises are occurring one after another and all opinions converge on the fear that their frequency and scale will not diminish in the coming years, this omission is a cause for concern.

The already meagre share of the Competitiveness Fund proposed for agriculture, health, the bioeconomy and biotechnology has been cut as well by 13 per cent to less than 20 billion euros in total, whilst the investment challenges for the common good – whether in the digitalisation of agriculture, water management or infrastructure – are immense.

The practical aspects of the future CAP, Ireland is proposing to the Heads of State and Government to pre-empt, raise questions too.

The imperative to support the European Union’s agricultural sectors so that they become more competitive, the need to fully open up bioeconomy markets to EU agriculture, the imperative to better manage risks and crises, and to definitively link increased sustainability with production, appear to fall outside the Presidency’s remit.

No explanation is provided for the absence of a new eco-scheme financed 100 per cent by the CAP, whilst such an efficiency scheme supporting dual-performance agriculture is not an option for the future of efficient funding for agriculture across the 27 EU Member States.

The same applies to co-financing rules and the need to make it clear that Member States should be obliged to maintain at least their current level of contribution in euros.

And, whilst enlargement to include Ukraine has been a clear choice on the part of the EU, the fact that it reverses the competitiveness issue compared with past European enlargements is largely ignored by the Irish proposal, opening the door to agricultural restructuring that would be inevitable and poorly managed.

Farm Europe and Eat Europe call on the European Parliament to ensure that agriculture’s strategic importance is reflected in the European Competitiveness Fund’s budget.

Farm Europe and Eat Europe express their deep concern over the proposed limited resources allocated – and still under discussion – by the EP Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (Comitre) to agriculture and the agri-food sector under the proposed report on the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), warning that the current budgetary balance risks undermining the EU’s competitiveness, food security and strategic autonomy.

“Recognising agriculture as strategic on paper is not enough. Dedicated funding opportunities must be available across the relevant ECF priorities, enabling farmers and the wider agri-food and bioeconomy chains to invest in innovation, digital technologies, clean energy, sustainable water management, strategic storage and the infrastructure needed to withstand climate and geopolitical shocks,” said Yves Madre, President of Farm Europe.

While the European Competitiveness Fund is intended to strengthen Europe’s industrial capacity, resilience and global competitiveness, Some are working to limit agriculture’s access to this fund to just €3 billion in dedicated funding, with a further €5 billion allocated to the broader policy window covering “Health, Biotechnology, Agriculture and Sustainable Transition”. These amounts stand in stark contrast to the more than €60 billion earmarked for defence and related industrial priorities.

For Farm Europe and Eat Europe, this imbalance raises fundamental questions about the priorities underpinning Europe’s competitiveness agenda.

“It is unacceptable that, within a Fund designed to relaunch European competitiveness and identify the strategic priorities for the future, agriculture should be left with a mere €3 billion, while the broader policy window linking health, biotechnology, agriculture and sustainable transition receives just €5 billion. Even more concerning is the fact that the connection between agriculture, food and citizens’ health is being given such inadequate financial recognition,” commented Luigi Scordamaglia, President of Eat Europe. “We are disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, given the stance already taken by the President of the European Commission.”

The organisations also point to the political signals emerging from the highest levels of the European institutions. In her State of the Union address, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen devoted substantial attention to defence and military priorities (32 explicit mentions), while agriculture and the fundamental relationship between food and citizens’ health received far less prominence.

Peace and security start with food. It must be measured in its ability to provide citizens with high-quality, safe and affordable food and the European Union with strong EU bioeconomy chain without which the concept of European sovereignty is meaningless.

An agricultural sector that is unable to invest in water resilience, strategic storage, digitalisation and innovation cannot deliver the level of resilience and strategic autonomy that Europe needs. Food security is not a secondary objective: it is a fundamental pillar of European security. EU sovereign bioeconomy is the pillar of tomorrow’s EU economic power.

Farm Europe and Eat Europe therefore call on the European Parliament, particularly within the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), to uphold the recommendations of the AGRI Committee and ensure that the final position on the European Competitiveness Fund reflects the true strategic importance of agriculture and food.

Europe cannot build lasting competitiveness, resilience or peace while underinvesting in the sector that feeds its citizens. Food security must be treated as a strategic investment in Europe’s future, not as a marginal budgetary concern.

Farm Europe and Eat Europe welcome the strong political message sent yesterday by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, as MEPs adopted their report on EU agri-food promotion policy, calling for an ambitious level of funding to be maintained, at least at its 2026 level. We particularly welcome the work carried out by the rapporteur, Salvatore De Meo, in securing this clear political position. 

This position confirms the concerns that Farm Europe and Eat Europe first raised when the Commission announced its intention to reduce the 2027 promotion budget by almost 50%. Such a reduction would be inconsistent with the Commission’s stated ambition to increase the recognition and uptake of European agri-food products.

Farm Europe and Eat Europe underline that promotion policy generates tangible economic value by supporting quality schemes and geographical indications, while strengthening the international competitiveness of European agriculture. It is also a key instrument for ensuring that consumers around the world recognise the added value of European products and the high standards underpinning them.

We also very much welcome the recognition in the report of the importance of ensuring fair and equal treatment for all eligible agricultural sectors and products, including high-quality wines and red meats, which play a vital role in supporting the sector, sustaining rural communities and showcasing Europe’s recognised know-how.

Farm Europe and Eat Europe now call on the European Commission to heed the clear message sent by the European Parliament and ensure that the promotion budget reflects the strategic importance of this policy. If the EU is serious about strengthening its agricultural sector and expanding its presence in global markets, its political ambitions must be backed by stable and adequate financial resources.

Farm Europe has released the updated version of its radar on the sustainability and sovereignty of EU food systems. The 2026 update confirms and sharpens a trend flagged in previous editions: the erosion of Europe’s traditional agricultural farms, arable crops and livestock, is accelerating, dragging socio-economic indicators down further, even as most environmental indicators continue to improve.

The radar shows an EU that remains an agricultural power in absolute terms, but one whose margins are narrowing fast: the trade surpluses that have long defined European agriculture are shrinking, not growing.

A Sharper Erosion of Historic Strengths

The EU27’s crop trade surplus is down 53.9% (2023-25 vs 2020-22 average), driven by a sharp drop in cereal exports, while the animal trade balance has fallen 28.2%, led by declining meat surpluses. The feed trade deficit has widened a further 11%, the EU is exporting less of what it grows while importing more of what it needs to feed its own livestock.

Socio-economic indicators are deteriorating in parallel: real farm income fell 8.3% between 2019 and 2024, and the number of farm holdings fell 11.7% between 2016 and 2020 alone, continuing a structural exodus that has cut EU farm numbers by over a third since 2005. Farm debt is rising even as income falls – a sign of farmers borrowing to stay afloat or meet non productive regulatory requirements rather than to invest to produce, generate value and new sources of income.

The environmental picture is mixed. GHG emissions continue to fall (-3.2%), and pesticide sales of the most dangerous molecules are down 9.7%, though this may partly reflect a shrinking, financially squeezed sector rather than efficiency gains alone. More concerning, the retreat of livestock farming is accelerating permanent grassland loss (-8.4% since 2009), eroding one of agriculture’s most effective carbon stores.

The bioeconomy is a mixed spot: biomaterials trade improved 66%, biogas production rose 11.1%, but when it comes to the bioenergy the dependency to imports remains very high in this market segment that has been frozen by EU regulations. The fraudulent imports of advanced biofuels is visible in the trend of the last years. 

These trends reflect global geopolitical pressure, climate volatility, structural change in EU farming, and the cumulative effect of recent policy choices. Reversing the decline in Europe’s core production capacity is urgent. Farm Europe reiterates its call for a genuine recovery plan for European agriculture, mobilizing the necessary budgetary resources and aligning every EU policy touching agriculture behind a sustainable relaunch of production, before the past strengths turn red.

Link to the Radar:

Today, during a discussion with the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, Farm Europe alerted the European Commission on the extremely alarming situation facing European agriculture, caught between geopolitical tensions that have caused production costs to skyrocket and the onslaught of climate change, which is highlighting the vulnerabilities of the European Union’s agricultural production systems, that have been focusing on regulatory, non-productive investments over recent decades. 

Farm Europe thanks Mr Christophe Hansen, European Commissioner for Agriculture, for his mobilisation and commitment but warns on the need to urgently move beyond traditional approaches in order to overcome short-term cash flow challenges faced by farmers, whilst preparing a long-term plan for growth and resilience in European agriculture. 

“EU agriculture is not merely facing temporary difficulties. It is being worn down by the geopolitical crisis, by severe drought over summer and the accumulation of non-productive investments aimed at compliance with regulations rather than adaptation to climate change”, alerted Yves Madre, President of Farm Europe. “The current growing seasons mark a tipping point. They cast a harsh light on Europe’s vulnerabilities in a world where agricultural production lies at the heart of geopolitical confrontation. Over recent decades, the European Union has adapted its agricultural policy without addressing the challenges facing agricultural production in a changing climate. It is paying the price for this today. Farm Europe therefore calls on the European Commissioner for Agriculture to launch a new initiative, a collaborative effort involving all stakeholders across the value chain to rebuild genuine European agricultural sovereignty, covering not only food security but also the challenges of a carbon-neutral economy”, he added. 

“Europe needs an ambitious recovery and investment plan for agriculture, built on fair incomes for farmers, strong production capacity and food sovereignty. Investing in agriculture means ensuring that high-quality food remains affordable for European citizens, rather than paving the way for alternatives disconnected from farming, such as laboratory-made products or ultra-formulated foods. This is how we strengthen European agriculture, both at home and on international markets,” said Ettore Prandini, President of Coldiretti and Chair of Farm Europe’s Strategic Committee.

“We cannot continue moving from one emergency to the next. Fertiliser costs, soaring fuel prices and drought demonstrate why we need a long-term strategy based on investment planning. For instance, enabling farmers to make full use of digestate would help reduce the cost of chemical fertilisers while preserving soil quality. This is just one example of the concrete action we need from the EU, and there are many others. Farm Europe and its members are bringing forward concrete solutions for the entire agricultural value chain. A stronger partnership with the European Commission will be key to putting agriculture back at the heart of Europe’s strategic choices,” concluded Prandini.

In recent years, European agriculture as a whole has fallen behind. Over the last two decades, the EU has lost almost 8 million hectares of cereal crops, 10% of its livestock and its vegetable growing area, 30% of its potato and sugar beet acreage, and 20% of its vineyard area. European agriculture is declining all while the Union needs agricultural production to meet the food and non-food needs of the European Union and its partners. 

However, prolonging this trend is not inevitable. Farm Europe is therefore calling for new and innovative ways of adding value to and financing European agriculture through short-term cash flow support, investment support measures, the opening up of new markets, including for bioenergy, and innovative sources of funding that better recognize the value and role of agriculture in building a carbon-neutral economy. For specific sectors, it is urgent to establish a high-level group on wheat, mirroring the positive work carried out for the livestock sector, and to accelerate the work on water, digitalisation, and risk and crisis management. All of this should aim at building a comprehensive resilience and investment plan for EU agriculture to support a growth strategy for EU agriculture, and bring back hope in European countrysides. 

In today’s State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, hid behind glossy rhetoric the bleak reality of the Union – in particular in the agriculture, food and energy sectors. “Words are good, deeds are better,” the President underlined, at a time when farmers are experiencing deeds that run in the opposite direction of words: far from reducing dependencies, the policy path driven by the Commission’s President is deepening them. Beyond words of love for farmers, the absence of concrete investment initiatives and of an emergency package to overcome a historic drought is worrying. Targeting 100 territories for water is good, but almost all farmers in Europe are now vulnerable with 70% of EU agriculture land in drought status this summer. 

Fixing leaks in Europe’s water systems is certainly necessary, but it is nowhere near the scale of the agricultural adaptation challenge and of investments needed. Promoting insurance and risk-management tools is indeed key, and Farm Europe has been advocating for it for more than a decade — but it will not replace a strong European budget and an autonomous Common Agricultural Policy. Overall, the policy path outlined by President von der Leyen in her annual address is presented as a strategy to shape an autonomous and sovereign Europe. In reality, it is delivering the opposite for the European agricultural sector.

So far, under the President von der Leyen leadership, the EU’s cereals surplus has been cut in half while 4 million hectares of cereals have disappeared. Wheat imports were multiplied by 2.4 between 2019 and 2023, and EU maize exports have collapsed by 48% since 2019. The livestock sector has lost more than 26 million heads since 2019. ; the EU’s meat trade surplus is down 26% since 2019, from 6.5 to 4.8 million tonnes. Europe has lost 1.37 million family farmers, a fifth of the total. Fertiliser costs have surged to historic levels: nitrogen prices in April 2026 stood 71% above their 2024 average, and EU fertiliser prices rose by a further 13.4% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026 while farm output prices fell by 5.8% according to the last Eurostat sectorial brief. Unfair competition has deepened. Overall, EU agri-food imports are rising almost six times faster than exports. The protein dependency has widened to a record 62.3 million tonnes of net imports of oilseeds and feed materials, up from 58.9 million tonnes in 2019 — with soybean meal imports alone reaching 41.7 million tonnes, 21% above their 2019 level.

The potential strengths and investment capacity of European agriculture are on hold, including when it comes to the bioeconomy. On biofuels and biomethane, where farmers can contribute to shaping a carbon-neutral economy, the potential of agriculture remains frozen by ideological posturing and by a lack of understanding within the European Commission of the economic drivers and the reality of agricultural value chains capable of serving several markets at once. The result is a substitution of dependencies rather than their reduction.

On the global stage, the European Commission has multiplied trade agreements, mostly with agriculture as the banker of the negotiations — including through the unequal treaty with the United States, which commits the EU to 750 billion dollars of American energy purchases and 600 billion dollars of investment in exchange for a 15% tariff ceiling. This is a blow to the European project and to its capacity to demonstrate protection for its citizens and economic actors, farmers included.

Beyond marketing and posturing, farmers urgently need a strong Europe with a common approach — not the continuation of a policy path that leads to market fragmentation, internal competition within the single market, and an absence of level playing field under the pretext of flexibility and do it yourself approaches. This is all the more pressing as the Commission proposes to ring-fence only 300 billion euros for the next long-term budget — a cut of more than 20%, and the disappearance of the CAP as a budget line of its own undermining further visibility and predictability for European farmers and their value chains.

Therefore, Farm Europe calls for resetting the position of agriculture, and of agricultural policy, at its rightful place in the European project, so as to unlock its true potential as a lever for a genuinely sovereign Europe in many fields — because this sector is central not only to food security and health for European citizens, but also to strategic value chains including energy, chemistry, and all the key components of a carbon-neutral economy.

Farm Europe regrets today’s plenary vote on the extension of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to downstream goods, which confirmed the deletion of Article 27a. Farm Europe counts on the Council and the Commission to defend this provision in the course of the interinstitutional negotiations, and beyond to urgently set a new decarbonation strategy for fertilisers that better reflect the specificities of agricultural value chains.

The European Parliament today confirmed the approach of ComENVI of deleting the emergency break that was proposed by the European Commission to allow suspending temporarily the carbon tax in case of Serious and unforeseen circumstances (Article 27a). The CBAM covers nitrogenous fertilisers, and farmers are the downstream users of those products. Unlike industrial operators, they receive no free allowances, they most often sell into price-taking markets and cannot pass costs downstream. Whatever happens to fertiliser prices lands at the farm gate, in a Union that remains heavily dependent on imports. Fertiliser prices are already at levels many farms cannot sustain.

The Commission’s original proposal recognises this risk proposing a conditional, evidence-based and reversible instrument, and not a weakening of the mechanism’s environmental integrity or its anti-circumvention architecture.

However, the European Parliament keeps a general provision under which the Commission may, “as appropriate”, redirect CBAM revenues to affected sectors. Where a policy structurally raises the price of an input that farmers cannot substitute and whose cost they cannot pass on, the revenue it generates should not bypass them. That principle now has to be made operative rather than left to the Commission’s discretionary power.

Eat Europe and Farm Europe welcome the recent inclusion of a specific provision on food in the proposed Public Procurement Act, just released. We have always advocated for public procurement as one of the most effective tools available to public authorities to drive healthier, higher-quality food systems. Public canteens — particularly in schools and hospitals — are not simply places where meals are served: they are powerful instruments for shaping dietary habits and protecting public health. We therefore welcome the fact that, although it was not included in the initial proposal, the Act now contains a specific provision addressing food. Failing to recognise the impact of public procurement rules in canteens on human health would have represented a major step backwards.

However, in its current form, the proposal does not yet go far enough in recognising the crucial role that public procurement can play in protecting and improving citizens’ health through access to quality food. 

In particular, the proposal relies on a voluntary approach when it comes to considering food quality criteria. Given the scale of the public procurement market and its direct impact on the diets of millions of citizens, we believe that certain quality considerations should be mandatory rather than simply encouraged.

“We welcome the strong focus on natural and seasonal food, as well as the recognition that the organisation of the food supply chain, including its local dimension, should be taken into account,” said Yves Madre, President of Farm Europe. “These are now fundamental criteria for European citizens when making food choices and should be reflected in greater coherence in public procurement, and in the future rules governing the common market organisation for agricultural products, as already recognised by the ongoing work of the European Parliament.”

Freshness and seasonality, organic and quality schemes, and the pattern that food makes along the chain, are important and welcome principles. Nevertheless, the concept of food quality remains too narrow: public procurement should also explicitly recognise the importance of prioritising short chains and minimally processed foods and should provide the possibility to restrict or prohibit the procurement of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), at least in particularly sensitive settings such as schools and hospitals.

“This is not an unrealistic ambition. Similar approaches are already beginning to emerge in different parts of the world,” said Luigi Scordamaglia, President of Eat Europe. “Within Europe, we have several examples in this direction: Rome, Paris and many others small and medium cities, demonstrating that public authorities can act decisively when health considerations are placed at the heart of food procurement” he concluded.

When it comes to UPFs, there is no longer time to wait. Initiatives promoted by Commissioner Várhelyi are moving in the right direction, but there remains too much reluctance to confront the issue and too much tendency to delay decisions on measures capable of addressing what is already one of the major food-related public health challenges facing our societies.

Eat Europe and Farm Europe therefore expect the European Parliament to begin, from the outset, a serious reflection on how to strengthen the proposal along these lines. This should include moving beyond a predominantly voluntary framework and ensuring that public procurement rules are designed first and foremost in the public interest.

“The debate should not be shaped by the interests of large food corporations whose primary objective is profit, but by the responsibility of policymakers to safeguard human health and ensure that public money contributes to healthier food systems, in particular providing effective and mandatory tools to contrast the spread of UPFs especially when it comes to rules on how to spend public money” said Luigi Scordamaglia, President of Eat Europe.

The map of the 2026 climate impacts on EU agricultural systems almost entirely overlaps with the long-term trends observed in recent years. 2026 is a year of climate extremes – excess water, extreme temperatures, and drought affecting 70% of agricultural land within the same year. The European Union is not being caught by surprise by this new reality, but it is facing it in a state of almost total unpreparedness, due to a lack of investment and anticipation of these phenomena affecting agricultural systems already under very severe pressure.

This is the main finding highlighted by the second part of the study entitled: “An agricultural water crisis that calls for a European plan to solve the puzzle of regional challenges”, presented on 8 September at the European Parliament, during an event held under the patronage of Ms Maria Carmen Crespo, Member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture.

On this occasion, alongside Ms Letizia Moratti, Member of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Ms Gaëlle Marion, Head of Unit “Environmental Sustainability” at the European Commission, Ms Céline Duroc, Director of AGPM and CEPM, Mr Adriano Battilani, Secretary-General of Irrigants d’Europe, Ms Claudia Albani, representative of Coldiretti, and Mr José Maria Castilla, Director for Europe at ASAJA, Luc Vernet, Secretary-General of Farm Europe, stressed:

“Farmers cannot face the water challenge alone. They are waiting for a strong signal from European leaders, and in particular from the President of the European Commission in her State of the Union address, regarding the measures envisaged both in the short and long term to support agriculture. 80% of agricultural losses in recent years have been caused by climate-related events. Water management in agriculture is the first risk-management lever, yet it has been significantly underinvested in over recent years. This issue does not concern farmers alone: agricultural soils are at the heart of natural cycles. They are the EU’s largest water infrastructure. Their good health determines not only our food supply, but also our ability to regulate temperatures, limit flooding, recharge groundwater, and store carbon. Securing farmers’ access to water is not a corporatist demand; it is a societal issue and a matter of safeguarding the water cycle.”

Against this backdrop, Farm Europe is calling on the European Commission to build a water strategy hand in hand with the agricultural sector, bringing together climate and agronomic expertise to develop relevant solutions tailored to the challenges of each territory. The second part of the study, which will be followed by work focused on solutions, combines three levels of analysis: an analysis of agricultural systems, an analysis of the sensitivity of agricultural ecosystems to water needs, and an assessment of hydro-climatic resources, taking into account their ongoing evolution. This analysis makes it possible to develop indicators that are fundamental to shaping the future.

It is becoming clear that no region is now beyond the reach of the water challenge: the entire European Union is concerned. But there is neither a single challenge nor a single solution: European cooperation is needed to define an adaptation pathway focused on the capacity to produce in a context of increasingly constrained water availability.

The adaptation levers exist: carbon farming, precision agriculture; investment in storage, irrigation, water reuse and desalination infrastructure; efforts to reduce the sensitivity of agricultural systems through the genetic adaptation of crops (particularly through NGTs) and adaptation of crop rotations where necessary.

To achieve this, short-, medium- and long-term financing tools must be made available, with investment in water availability for agriculture treated as a strategic investment within the current and future EU budget, including the Competitiveness Fund and the Common Agricultural Policy.

“The delay accumulated over the past 20 years means that the European Union must manage the emergency through short-term measures to ensure the continuity of production, while preparing for the future in order to move beyond a situation of permanent crisis,” concludes Luc Vernet. “This calls for putting agriculture back at the heart of the European project, as a strategic endeavour that benefits European society as a whole.”

Link to the study:

Farm Europe presents new study on water resilience at the European Parliament on 8 September

Following another summer of severe drought, extreme heat and growing pressure on water resources, Farm Europe is repeatedly calling for a shift from crisis management to prevention, resilience and investment to strengthen the competitiveness of European agriculture. And this can be achieved with a political will and target amendments to the CAP set of proposals and other legislative dossiers, such as the European Competitiveness Fund.

Farm Europe will present its new in-depth study on water at the European Parliament on 8 September at 17:30, at an event hosted by MEP Carmen Crespo (Spain, EPP).

The study examines the water situation across the EU and its regional dimension, and start reflecting on setting out recommendations to address the growing challenges facing European farming.

“Europe cannot afford to wait for the next crisis. The time has come not only to manage the consequences of water scarcity but also to prevent them. Europe needs a long-term strategy based on prevention, resilience and investment,” says Luc Vernet, Secretary General of Farm Europe.

Farm Europe calls in particular for the future European Competitiveness Fund to support strategic investments in water resilience, including water-storage infrastructure, digital technologies to improve water efficiency and measures to protect water quality.

The study also highlights the contribution of agriculture, livestock farming and the wider bioeconomy to building more resilient European territories.

The presentation will be followed by a roundtable with MEPs, EU institutions, agricultural stakeholders, experts and Farm Europe members and partners, focusing on how water management can help secure the future competitiveness and resilience of European farming.

Europe’s water crisis is here. The time to act is now.

The event takes place on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, from 17:30 to 19:00 at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Registration for stakeholders and media: https://forms.gle/4LukUhDpS25frGvv7