A senior official from the European Commission has expressed disappointment about the rate of progress around the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Last July, the commission outlined its proposals for a "simpler, more targeted and future-orientated" CAP after 2027 as part of its plans for the next EU long-term budget, known as the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF).

Under the proposals, the next CAP, covering the period from 2028-2034, would move away from the traditional two-pillar structure.

Instead, the CAP would be integrated into National and Regional Partnership Plans worth €865 billion, of which a minimum of €300 million would be ringfenced for farmer income supports.

The commission believes the proposals, which allow for additional funding to be targeted at farmers, would increase flexibility for member states to direct funding toward specific needs.

This week, the European Parliament voted to back funding for the CAP at around the 2022-2027 level and to take account of inflation.

CAP

Speaking to Agriland in Brussels, a senior EU Commission official said they are hoping for final decisions on the next CAP by early 2027.

"We are gearing up to make sure that everything happens as soon as possible.

"In fact, we are disappointed that we are now in April 2026. We made a proposal in July 2025 and we have not made enough progress bascially. But that's not in our hands, we are not the legislators. We are trying to encourage, we're trying to clarify.

"We are really pushing for decisions by the end of this year or very early next year," they said.

Under the treaties of the EU, the 'legislators' are the European Parliament, made up of 720 directly elected MEPs; and the Council of the EU, which is made up of member state governments.

Plans

The commission is also working in parallel with member states, including Ireland, on their National and Regional Partnership Plans.

However, the official noted that at this stage these are "conversations" rather than "fully fledged documents".

The commission has also "scrapped a lot of the requirements for the plans".

"Some of these studies that we required for the previous plans for agriculture are no longer there. So that should facilitate rapid delivery of the plan and rapid approval here," the official said.

"We will make sure that farmers get paid [in] 2027, 2028, 2029, etc. That is a common commitment that we have," they added.

Active farmers

The commission's legal proposal also recommends that future CAP funding should be focused on "active farmers".

Defining what farmers or people have access to CAP funds has been a key debate in Brussels for a long time.

"What we have proposed is to say that agriculture should be [the] principal activity of the farmer.

"In addition, we have said that for smaller farms, the member states can provide a rule that they can still have access to funding. So, there's a lot of flexibility for member states," the EU official said.

"That is why we have moved to say, for the people who benefit from these direct payments, agriculture should be a principal activity," they said

The official added that they believe "there is probably going to be quite a lot of continuity between the current situation and the future"

They noted that member states will "get quite a large hand in determining which farmers in the national situation they want to include in the system".

However, the commission proposal has been criticised by some members of the EU Parliament and farm organisations who are concerned about the potential impact on part-time farmers.

Copa Cogeca said the commission proposal should be amended to allow member states "to choose the criteria to define the farmer/beneficiary in a clear, simple and operational manner while keeping the possibility to add additional ones and include a negative list".

The umbrella group representing EU farmers and agri-cooperatives said the concept of "principal activity" should be removed, and be replaced with "natural or legal persons or groups of natural or legal persons exercising a minimum productive agricultural activity on their holding(s)".

Entitlements

The EU official confirmed to Agriland that entitlements would be abolished under the current CAP proposals.

"I don't really hear anybody who says we need to keep them, so I think that's done," they said.

"In effect, what we are now saying, if you have an hectare and it's agricultural land, and we have the definition of agricultural land, you get the payment, which is much simpler. And so we want to move to that system everywhere," they added.

Ireland is among a group of EU member states, including France and Spain, that still have entitlements.

"I think it's better for farmers to cut out this extra layer of adminstrative burden and have the payments simply on the basis of a hectare," the official added.