On general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2026 – all sections

Crisis preparedness and risk management

7.Takes note that the 2026 agricultural reserve has been reinstated at EUR 450 million and is fully financed with new appropriations with no recourse to financial discipline while 2025 agricultural reserve has been partly financed through the carry-over of the 2024 funds; welcomes this reinstatement as it reflects the growing need for risk management; acknowledges that the amount, fixed at current prices since 2021 under Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 of the European Parliament and of the Council, is insufficient to address today’s challenges; urges the Commission to improve the agricultural reserve’s accessibility and activation mechanisms by establishing, through the 2025 Omnibus packages, new tools for managing natural, market and health risks, ensuring that funds follow objective and transparent allocation criteria and reach farmers swiftly and fairly with priority to the most affected, to restore their livelihoods and economic activity; stresses that any new mechanisms must be accompanied by adequate additional funding to guarantee effectiveness; highlights that the agricultural reserve should be used transparently, purposefully and proactively and reiterates the need to assess options for mobilising additional funds outside the CAP; notes that the agricultural reserve cannot fully offset the consequences of climate-driven extreme weather events, therefore encourages Member States to support insurance, adaptation, prevention and preparedness for farmers, foresters, agricultural workers and rural communities; calls for a specific mechanism to swiftly support farmers hit by animal disease outbreaks, ensuring business continuity, income stability and rural resilience;

8.Notes that despite the increase of the agricultural reserve, the overall financial space under EAGF remains narrow, and reiterates the need to fully utilise all flexibility instruments under the MFF, including unused margins and special instruments, both in response to agri-food shocks and in order to refill the crisis reserve; stresses the need to invest in preparedness, prevention and adaptation measures and early-warning systems; urges the Commission to ensure the agricultural reserve has adequate resources for market stabilisation and rapid crisis response and ensure the swifter activation and allocation of support, including the development of stockpiling strategies to safeguard food security in agricultural or geopolitical emergencies;

Generational renewal and social resilience

9.Reaffirms the urgency of supporting generational renewal in agriculture; regrets the lack of a visible increase in the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) allocations dedicated to young farmers and new entrants into farming; urges the Commission and Member States to prioritise, strengthen and facilitate start-up support and access to affordable land and finance under the CAP Strategic Plans, particularly for young farmers and new entrants into farming; underlines the need for adequate resources to provide training for new entrants into farming as well as to establish dedicated credit guarantee schemes; recognises that young farmers face difficulties accessing finance and knowledge, and urges therefore the Commission and Member States to better address those challenges to secure fair income and long-term perspectives; draws attention to the ageing of rural population, persistent gender gaps, and high rates of young people neither in employment nor in education or training and emphasises support for initiatives under the Rural Pact and strong financial and political backing for farm modernisation, access to land, and vocational training;

10. Highlights persistent disparities between more and less developed regions in accessing support and stresses that generational renewal depends on integrated strategies to enhance the attractiveness of rural life and work; calls therefore on the Commission to propose differentiated measures reflecting outward-migration, demographic ageing, and land abandonment; calls on the Commission to support Member States in identifying mechanisms for dignified farmers retirement;

Sectoral programmes and competitiveness

11.Expresses serious concern over the complete removal of funding for promotion programmes under direct management, which previously supported EU agri-food exports and consumer awareness; regrets the significant cuts made to those programmes as a result of the mid-term review of the MFF; calls for the full reinstatement and adequate funding of those programmes, in order to strengthen the competitiveness, trade opportunities and reputation of EU production and exports; considers the reduction of support for promotion activities counterproductive in a context where producers face increased competition, and calls for a dedicated budget to be allocated for the promotion of products from disadvantaged and mountainous areas, with a focus on quality and traceability; urges the Commission to actively promote EU farmers and the agricultural sector both locally and through a dynamic, comprehensive EU export policy covering all agricultural products;

12.Welcomes the significant increase in sectoral allocations for fruit and vegetables and stresses the importance of protecting them from unfair competition as well as maintaining support for these and other vulnerable sectors (e.g. apiculture, wine, olive and sunflower oil)which contribute to food security, sustainable growth, rural development and employment, and reflect the quality, tradition and excellence of the EU;

13.Reiterates the value of the EU school schemes for fruit, vegetables and milk in promoting healthy diets and positive attitudes toward farming, while indirectly contributing to the improvement of children's health, well-being, overall development and academic performance, helping to reduce social inequalities and early school leaving; calls for stable, transparent, and increased funding to ensure continuity, broader reach and awareness of those schemes across all Member States and regions, as well as a better quality of the products distributed; encourages sourcing from local and community producers, prioritising, where possible, seasonal and minimally packaged products and short supply chains in order to foster rural development; underlines in that regard farmers’ key role in delivering quality food, ensuring strategic autonomy and safeguarding food security;

Rural development and innovation

14.Supports the proposed allocation of EUR 13,3 billion to the EAFRD and stresses the importance of maintaining support for rural communities, smart villages, the development of rural infrastructure, such as energy grids, as well as innovation, thereby fostering employment, sustainable growth, local development in rural areas, while providing start-up and investment support to farmers and businesses; calls for prioritising projects that safeguard agricultural jobs, create quality employment, safeguard labour rights and help tackle rural poverty and social exclusion;

Sustainable water and soil management

15.Emphasises the need to invest in sustainable water management, including the protection of wetlands as natural water-storage buffers alongside the capture, retention and efficient management of water resources and the development of strategic water storage basins, including for rainwater; calls for increased financial support to modernise and develop irrigation, precision farming and hydraulic infrastructure, making it more efficient, resilient and sustainable, through proven water-saving technologies; stresses that these investments must ensure fair access to water resources for all farmers, irrespective of farm size, safeguarding property rights; stresses the importance of investing in soil resilience, particularly in light of increasing climate variability and the rising risks of drought, fires, floods and soil degradation and erosion within CAP Strategic Plans; recalls that adequate quantities of quality water are essential for both crop irrigation and livestock farming and that investment in modern irrigation is vital for ensuring food security and shielding farmers from impacts of extreme weather events related to climate change; notes that access to EU funds for water storage facilities remains difficult and that current investments are insufficient; calls therefore for the mobilisation of additional financial instruments for this purpose;

Digitalisation and precision farming

16. Encourages further integration of digitalisation and precision farming into rural development objectives; highlights that this requires adequate funding to guarantee broadband access in all rural areas and urges the Commission to streamline and make more user-friendly the access to EU digital funding for all, but especially small and medium-sized farms; stresses that digitalisation is a tool for achieving more efficient, sustainable, traceable, socially responsible and high-performing agriculture, thereby making rural employment and areas more attractive and enabling new businesses to develop; underlines that digitalisation is also a crucial tool for the enhancement of inland areas and for combating depopulation; highlights the need to address the digital divide among farmers by providing targeted training, education, and support, particularly for small-scale farms and older farmers; recalls the importance of ensuring that research results reach farm level and are translated into farm advisory services that are accessible, affordable, practical, and tailored to farmer’s needs; draws attention to the role of stronger Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), as well as the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN), in encouraging innovation projects and promoting their uptake;

17. Calls for increased and adequate funding for research, development and innovation in the agri-food sector, including safe and sustainable alternatives to pesticides, such as biological control solutions, and emphasises the need for targeted investment in precision agriculture, adaptation to climate change, biotechnologies, including new genomic techniques, artificial intelligence and robotics, so as to optimise productivity while reducing inputs, costs and emissions; welcomes the proposed increase of EUR 34 662 944 in the budget line for “Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment” compared to 2025, and calls for this funding to be prioritised towards farm-level innovation and practical solutions; underlines that financial support should also cover circular economy projects such as the use of digestate and RENURE fertilisers, renewable energy production, and incentives for the efficient use of biomass, agricultural waste and co-products to enhance farm energy autonomy and resilience; highlights the potential of emerging technologies and production models such as agriphotovoltaics, and controlled-environment agriculture, which enables innovative and resource-efficient food production systems; stresses that those models can deliver multiple benefits, including clean energy, improved soil and crop performance, diversification of farmers’ incomes, resilience against climate impacts, and greater competitiveness and reduced reliance on imports; calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide appropriate funding, tailored policy tools and access to the European Investment Bank Group financing to support their further development and uptake;

POSEI

18. Highlights the strategic importance of the POSEI programme in ensuring the continuity of agricultural activity in the outermost regions, preserving food sovereignty and enhancing their economic, social and territorial cohesion, in line with Article 349 TFEU; deplores that the POSEI financial envelope has remained unchanged for over a decade and that the Commission has not applied the 2 % deflator set by the European Council conclusions of 17-21 July 2020; calls, therefore, on the Commission to present a substantial update of the programme, ensuring both the application of the deflator and an adequate increase in financial allocations both under the current MFF and the MFF 2028–2034, taking into account inflation, structurally higher production and transport costs, territorial fragmentation, growing exposure to extreme weather events, market volatility, and the logistical challenges of supply chains in the outermost regions; underlines the need to establish a specific mechanism to mitigate additional transport costs and to reward the environmental services provided by farmers in the outermost regions, in line with the EU’s climate and environmental objectives;

Combating animal diseases

19. Welcomes the paper presented by several Member States at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in May 2025, noting the growing spread of different animal diseases such as avian influenza, bluetongue, peste des petits ruminants, foot and mouth disease and African swine fever; calls on the Commission to intensify preventive measures, present an EU vaccination strategy backed by dedicated funding; calls for strengthened EU-level coordination on veterinary vaccine purchase and supply through a preparedness mechanism, and for fostering vaccine development within the EU; urges the Commission to increase allocations for compensation following animal and plant diseases, as the current veterinary and phytosanitary funding for 2025–2027 proved inadequate; underlines the need for adequate funding to step up prevention and control of emerging and re-emerging animal diseases, and support research of sustainable solutions, including genetic selection for disease resistance, while reducing reliance on costly treatments; calls therefore for the establishment of a dedicated EU compensation mechanism to provide swift, fair and adequate financial support to farmers affected by epidemics or outbreaks of animal diseases, ensuring business continuity and strengthening the resilience of rural communities.