AUTHORS: Cora Petrick (Agora Agriculture), David Baldock (IEEP), Pieter Zwaan (Clingendael Institute), Nikolai Pushkarev (Agora Agriculture), Harald Grethe (Agora Agriculture), Kaley Hart (IEEP) and Christine Chemnitz (Agora Agriculture)

This policy brief produced jointly by Agora Agriculture, the Clingendael Institute and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) finds that the Commission’s proposal for the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy risks substantially reducing the policy’s EU added value. It sets out three adjustments that would create more room, stronger incentives, and greater certainty for spending on environmental, climate, and animal welfare objectives. 

The Commission’s proposal published in July 2025 gives Member States more flexibility over how they allocate CAP funding, but provides weak incentives to spend on environmental, climate and animal welfare measures, which have high EU added value. At the same time, it introduces common spending requirements for interventions such as coupled income support and degressive area-based income support (DABIS), which contribute less to shared EU objectives.

This combination could reverse the long-term trend towards a greater share of CAP funding being used for environmental, climate and animal welfare objectives. It could also weaken the common nature of the CAP and, with it, the policy’s societal legitimacy. 

The analysis shows that the minimum budget required for DABIS alone would account for more than half of the CAP budget in over a third of Member States. Together with the increased number of mandatory interventions that require funding, this would leave limited room for environmental spending comparable to that under the current CAP. 

The proposed co-financing arrangements would create a further constraint. To maintain current spending levels on eco-schemes and agri-environmental and climate measures, Member States collectively would need to contribute almost twice as much national funding as they do today. 

The brief proposes a package of three changes that combine greater flexibility with stronger common incentives and safeguards: 

• Remove the minimum spending requirement for DABIS and reduce the number of mandatory interventions, giving Member States more flexibility to direct CAP funding towards environmental priorities. 
• Lower national co-financing rates for environmental spending, making it more attractive and affordable for Member States without restricting their choice of measures. 
• Ringfence a minimum share of the CAP budget for environmental, climate and animal welfare objectives, ensuring that all Member States contribute to shared EU priorities. 

How flexibility and commonality are applied will determine whether the next CAP delivers EU added value. The proposed changes would give Member States more scope to adapt measures to national circumstances while ensuring that sufficient funding supports shared environmental, climate and animal welfare objectives. 

The three adjustments would make environmental spending more affordable for national budgets and help maintain it under the next CAP. Adequate funding, however, is only part of the solution. Strong governance, monitoring and EU oversight will also be needed to ensure that measures are effective and sufficiently ambitious.

Photo by Steven Weeks on Unsplash