MEPs today (Thursday, November 20) reached a provisional agreement to simplify EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) rules.

The EU Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development backed a deal which aims to reduce the administrative and regulatory burdens on farmers across Europe.

One key element of this deal will ensure that that land considered arable on January 1, 2026 can maintain this status even if it has not been ploughed up, tilled, or reseeded.

According to MEPs, this will both "protect biodiversity and prevent farmers from costly and time-consuming ploughing of land every five to seven years to keep their land arable".

Separately, MEPs believe that farmers who are certified as organic will be deemed to comply automatically with several requirements to maintain land in good agricultural and environmental condition (GAEC) for those parts of their holdings that are organic and/or in-conversion to organic.

MEPs also wanted to see the ceilings for support for small farmers be raised to an annual payment of up to €3,000 - rather than the €2,500 proposed by the commission.

According to parliament negotiator, André Rodrigues, the European Parliament has listened to farmers and "turned their concerns into real solutions.”

MEPs

MEPs also today successfully defended the 'once-only' principle for inspections proposed by the commission.

This would ensure that farmers should not have to be subject to more than one official on-the-spot check in any given year.

The provisional agreement to simplify EU CAP requirements was approved by Agricultural and Rural Development Committee by 34 votes to three, and one abstention.

The next step is for it to be approved by the European Parliament in one of the future plenary sessions and then by the European Council.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has said that any efforts to simplify CAP must benefit farmers.