An Irish MEP has warned that new proposals on the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will put EU member states on "course for a head-on confrontation" with the European Parliament.

EU member states have agreed their position the format of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2028 to 2034.

This partial general approach will form the basis of the Council of the EU's opinion when it starts negotiations with the European Parliament on the next CAP.

Therefore, this agreed approach from member states will not necessarily reflect exactly how the next CAP will look.

The member states' position retains a number of contentious proposals originally made by the European Commission last summer.

The agreement by member states would see the end of the traditional two-pillar CAP approach, to be replaced by a single funding structure.

It also retains the National and Regional Partnerships Plans (NRPP), which would see CAP funding included in larger pots of money with other non-CAP funding priorities.

Irish MEP Ciaran Mullooly warned that the council's negotiating position on the post-2027 CAP "lacks ambition" and sets the scene for "difficult and prolonged negotiations" with the European Parliament.

He said the council is "setting the course for a head-on confrontation with Parliament on a number of fronts".

Mullooly claimed that the council was attempting to present the National and Regional Partnership Plan framework as a "fait accompli—the only show in town".

"I do not accept that farmers must settle for a CAP with reduced funding and agriculture relegated to second-division status within a wider national spending plan," the Independent Ireland MEP said.

"The council’s position offers no sufficiently clear vision for what European agriculture should achieve over the next seven years, or how farmers will be given the resources to deliver it," he added.

Mullooly did acknowledge that the proposed CAP plan includes enhanced measures for young farmers, such as higher income support and assistance to establish their businesses.

However, the MEP said these measures "must be backed by adequate secure funding".

"Overall, however, the council's position falls short of the ambition needed to protect family farms, sustain rural communities and secure European food production," he added.

Mullooly said he expects "lengthy and difficult negotiations" with the parliament on what he claimed are the "inadequacies" in the council's position.