800 million euros more than in the current period 2020-2027. That is the benefit that the Spanish countryside will obtain in the future European budget 2028-2034 according to information from the Agriculture Commission.
The community sources specify that Spain will receive:
- 37.240 million euros in aid to farmers' income (known as direct aid).
- 4.520 million euros earmarked to meet rural objectives (which go beyond agricultural policies).
- 4.220 million euros (anticipated, not added) provided that the member state presents adequate measures to apply them.
Said community sources also add that to these accounts it would be necessary to add inflation, which if it exceeds 3% will condition that all being is revised upwards.
On the other hand, the amount of aid destined for fishing (Spain is the leading power in the fishing sector of the European Union) is foreseen to be 420 million euros.
To these figures, the Agriculture Commission also adds around 10 million euros more coming from the Horizon Europe program and the European Competitiveness Fund, funding that will be allocated to agri-food research.
A PAC common?
The main challenge of the future European Union budget, apart from the economic figures, is the important change that is intended to be given to its governance, since the CAP will cease to be a policy of its own and will become a program included in the National and Regional Collaboration Plan (CNR) of each member state in which the government of each country will have more weight than before.
The objective of this change is that from 2028 each country has more autonomy in the application of funds so that they are better utilized. However, Brussels insists that the CAP will remain “common” because the Commission will indicate a series of recommendations (mandatory) that will be common to all member states.
Periods of time
The European Commission has set itself the goal of ending 2026 with the CAP Regulation drafted (with said recommendations established) and the Multiannual Financial Framework presented, so that during 2027 member states work on their National and Regional Collaboration Plans (CNR) and the final budgets are approved. Brussels intends, in this way, that both the future CAP and the new budgets enter into force at the beginning of 2028, a date that other sources consider difficult to reach on time due to all the work and negotiations that need to be carried out to reach consensus.
From the Agriculture Commission, the reluctance of the ministers of the sector to modify the structure of the CAP and its financing is recognized, since from 2028 it will depend more on each member state than on the European Union. However, these sources recognize that this drawback becomes an advantage for the ministers of Economy or Finance, who with the new way of receiving funds find themselves less constrained when it comes to applying them.
“We want to offer greater flexibility. Provide fewer, simpler, and more efficient programs. Our objective is to have synergies so that the management of European funds is more effective”, sources from the Agriculture Commission have pointed out regarding the important changes of the future Common Agricultural Policy.