Since the presentation of the MFF proposal on 16 July, it has been clear — and widely recognized within the European Parliament — that the budget framework proposed by President Ursula von der Leyen, and in particular the concept of a single fund, must be rejected. This rejection is not merely due to the unfair allocation of resources that severely undermines the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), but also because it reflects a dangerous drift toward the renationalization of EU policies.
The recent attempt by President von der Leyen to revise certain aspects of the Single Fund Regulation offers no real way forward. It is both misguided in its intent and misleading in its presentation.
• The proposed 2028–2034 European budget — especially its provisions concerning the CAP and the single fund — threatens to erode Europe’s food sovereignty at a time when all major global powers are investing heavily in food security and supply.
• Instead of reinforcing Europe’s ability to produce high-quality, safe, and distinctive food and to secure a safe supply of EU bioeconomy, it proposes a 20% cut to the resources supporting farmers — directly harming European citizens, their food security and EU sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the overall EU budget increases to €2 trillion, yet agriculture receives only 14% of the funds — down from 30–35% in the last two programming periods.
The proposals presented this week, intended as a response to criticism from the European Parliament, several governments, and numerous economic and social actors, completely miss the core of these objections. In fact, they only make them more evident.
• The so-called additional “10% rural target” supposedly allocated to agriculture is nothing more than a deceptive concession. These funds are earmarked for territorial integrated plans, encouraging competition among sectors — competition that should instead be avoided. They are not funds for agriculture or farmers, but for other purposes unrelated to agricultural economic activity.
• It is deeply concerning — and must be firmly stated — that the Commission continues to ignore the critical issue of the renationalization of European policies. Persisting down this path would mean dismantling the CAP, one of Europe’s greatest achievements, which has for decades ensured that citizens have access to the safest and most sustainable food in the world — food produced in Europe.
• The EU risks being reduced to a mere distributor of funds, abandoning its role as a driver of common policy. President von der Leyen’s proposal reveals a deliberate intention to de-sectoralize and de-specialize EU action in favour of a single-fund logic and a uniform performance framework — an approach fundamentally unsuited to sectoral policies and blind to the economic objectives the EU should pursue.
• This de-specialization would inevitably lead to a dilution of responsibility by both the Commission and the EU as a whole. Even the legitimate need for greater flexibility in resource use is being offloaded onto Member States, leaving no real European margin for manoeuvre.
Urgent corrections are therefore essential. The legislative framework for agriculture must be reshaped into a single, coherent CAP regulation with its own performance framework, and the funds cut from agricultural support must be restored. Europe must reinvest in its farmers, not in vague and undefined plans. Only by doing so can we preserve and continue a success story that has brought Europe’s farmers and citizens food, peace, and prosperity.
• We trust that the strong positions expressed in recent weeks by the European Parliament — so far excluded from the decision-making process — will not fade in the face of yet another inadequate response from the Commission.
• A Europe that shifts its problems onto Member States under the pretext of “flexibility” is not a healthy Europe. It is not the Europe we want. It is a weakened Europe — one that hides its lack of political vision and responsibility behind bureaucratic manoeuvres, instead of facing shared challenges with a strong sense of common purpose.
O artigo foi publicado originalmente em Farm Europe.
