The Council of the EU has given its final green light on the simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The aim is to boost the competitiveness of European agriculture by cutting red tape, supporting farmers, including small farmers and business start-ups, encouraging innovation and boosting productivity.

The council said that the simplification measures could lead to significant reductions in administrative costs for both farmers and national administrations.

According to the European Commission’s initial assessment, they could lead to annual savings of up to €1.6 billion for farmers and more than €200 million for member states’ administrations.

The revised law forms the so-called 'Omnibus III' legislative package proposed by the commission in May 2025.

The package contains amendments to the strategic plan regulation (SPR) and the ‘horizontal’ regulation on the CAP.

It is the second of a series of simplification files on which co-legislators reach agreement following 'Omnibus II' adopted by the council last week.

The simplification package 'Omnibus III' on agriculture is part of a broader political objective of enhancing EU competitiveness, by reducing businesses’ administrative burden and creating more favourable conditions for them to operate in the EU.

Minister for European affairs of Denmark, Marie Bjerre said: "We delivered once more on our simplification agenda by making EU rules simpler and easier for our farmers and national administrations.

"Getting rid of unnecessary rules for farmers and member states has been a priority for the Danish presidency. This will help the agricultural sector grow and become stronger - boosting the sector’s competitiveness across Europe."

Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark, Jacob Jensen added: "This revision is an important step in the direction of simplification of the common agricultural policy.

"It not only contributes to the competitiveness of our farmers; it also makes it easier to deliver on our green ambitions, by giving farmers and member states more flexibility in the implementation of green requirements."

Main elements of new simplification measures

The simplification measures aim to:

Ease the administrative burden for farmers and administrations;
Increase the payments to small farmers and simplify the rules on conditionality, in particular for organic farms;
Reduce the on-the-spot checks and delete the annual performance clearance.

The revised legislation allows member states to provide crisis payments to active farmers that are affected by natural disasters, adverse climatic events or catastrophic events.

Such payments are aimed at ensuring continuity of the agricultural activity of the affected farmers.

Among other improvements, the revised law:

Provides flexibility to member states to decide to what extent partially organic farms could be considered to fulfil certain environmental standards, the so-called GAECs (good agricultural and environmental conditions);
Improves the possibility for farmers to benefit from risk management tools;
Increases the percentage rate for advanced direct payments.

The legislative act will be published in the EU’s official journal in the coming days and enter into force the day after its publication.