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Common Agricultural Policy

The EU’s common agricultural policy supports farmers and farmers and the development of rural areas

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the EU’s policy aimed primarily at the agricultural sector and the rural environment of the Member States, to help them meet their challenges and needs, while helping to provide quality and affordable food for the citizens of the Union.

The CAP currently serves as an impetus for modern, competitive, resilient and diversified agriculture, contributing to the fulfilment of environmental and climate commitments and ensuring long-term food security. In addition, it offers strong support to farmers, trying to provide them with a reasonable standard of living. The CAP provides benefits not only for the agri-food system, but also for consumers and society at large:

  1. Food supply in line with consumer requirements
  2. Preserving the environment and combating climate change
  3. Population fixation and employment generation in rural areas
  4. Direct and indirect generation of work in the agri-food system

In addition, the CAP will contribute to the objectives set out in the European Green Pact in 2030 that promote a transformation of the EU economy to be modern, resource-efficient and competitive. To this end, we want to stop producing net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, to decouple economic growth from the use of resources and to achieve all this without people or places being left behind. It also contributes to other important initiatives such as the Farm-to-Table Strategy or the EU Strategy on Diversity 2030.

The common agricultural policy (CAP) is the EU policy aimed at the agricultural sector and the rural environment of the Member States. The CAP helps farmers and farmers to meet their challenges and needs, while helping to provide quality and affordable food for Union citizens.

European funds in support of agricultural policy

In accordance with Community legislation, funding for the CAP is provided through two funds:

In accordance with the objectives of the CAP, EAFRD and EAGF assistance will aim at further improving the sustainable development of agriculture, food and rural areas, as well as contributing to the achievement of three general objectives:

  1. Promote a smart, competitive, resilient and diversified agricultural sector that ensures long-term food security;
  2. support and strengthen environmental protection, including biodiversity, and climate action and contribute to achieving the Union’s environmental and climate objectives, including the commitments made under the Paris Agreement; and
  3. Strengthen the socio-economic fabric of rural areas.

These general objectives will be achieved by means of a number of specific objectives (SOs) around which the Member States’ strategic CAP plans are based:

  1. OE1

    Support a viable income and farm resilience across the Union to improve food security.

  2. OE2

    Improve market orientation and increase competitiveness.

  3. OE3

    Improving the position of farmers in the value chain.

  4. OE4

    Contribute to mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects, as well as to sustainable energy.

  5. OE0

    Promote sustainable development and efficient management of natural resources such as water, soil and air.

  6. OE6

    Contribute to the protection of biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services and conserve habitats and landscapes.

  7. OE7

    Attract and support young farmers and new farmers and facilitate sustainable business development in rural areas.

  8. OE8

    Promote employment, growth, social inclusion and local development in rural areas, including the bioeconomy and sustainable forestry.

  9. OE9

    Improving the response of EU agriculture to social requirements in the field of food and health, in particular concerns about safe, nutritious and sustainable food products, as well as animal welfare.

  • Cross-cutting objective

    Modernising agriculture and rural areas, promoting knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agricultural and rural areas.

Strategic Plan of the CAP 2023-2027 of Spain

In Spain, the Strategic Plan of the CAP 2023-2027 of Spain (PEPAC) constitutes the instrument to guarantee the coherence of the implementation of the CAP measures in Spain, adapting to the specific sectoral and regional characteristics of our country.

The plan has three main types of action:

  1. Direct aid: direct payments interventions are payments paid directly to agricultural professionals in order to provide them with a safety net with sufficient funding to carry out their economic activities. With income support to ensure the care of agricultural land and compliance with environmental standards, food safety and animal welfare. This will ensure that agricultural activity is maintained throughout the EU.
  2. Sectoral interventions: Interventions in certain production sectors through sectoral programmes, in particular in the fruit and vegetable sectors (operational programmes), wine (Wine Sector Intervention) and beekeeping (National Beekeeping Intervention). These programmes are defined taking into account the needs of each sector and can cover a wide range of areas, from product promotion to innovation, investment, pest and disease control and environmental and climate impact reduction.
  3. Rural development interventions:Half of Europe’s surface area is predominantly rural areas where about 20% of the EU’s population live. Most of them are also among the least favoured regions of the EU. Rural development policy is a very important instrument for supporting the development of rural areas and agriculture. EU measures facilitate the modernisation of agricultural holdings, while promoting the diversification of rural areas.

Furthermore, outside the PEPAC, there is another area for intervention: the mmarket editions that son the set of rules created under the CAP to counteract the high volatility of prices on agricultural markets in the EU. They help the agri-food sector to face challenges such as global competition, economic and financial crises, climate change and the volatility of input costs such as fuel and fertilizer.

The CAP budget in Spain for the period 2021-2027 amounts to 47,724 M€, of which: € 13,730 million corresponding to the transitional period for the extension of the CAP 2014-2020; € 32,549 million corresponding to the implementation of the PEPAC; and € 1,445 million corresponding to other market measures.

The total public expenditure foreseen within the framework of the Strategic Plan of the Spanish CAP (PEPAC) for interventions in the form of direct aid from the EAGF budget for the period 2021-2027 is 24,177 M€. For its part, the total public expenditure foreseen for rural development interventions is 8,314.32 M€ between 2023 and 2027, of which 5,403 M€ are from the EAFRD budget. With regard to sectoral interventions, the expenditure foreseen over the period amounts to 2.910 M€, divided between the fruit and vegetables sector (€ 1,804M), the wine sector (€ 1,010M) and the beekeeping sector (€ 95M).

PEPAC (pdf) Summary of the plan (pdf)