European Parliament pushes rollback of CAP “green” measures even further

Posted on 13 Oct 2025

© James Morgan / WWF

The already limited green measures in the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have taken yet another blow.

The European Parliament has voted for - and gone even further than - the European Commission’s proposal to weaken the current CAP. Rolling back key provisions of the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs)*, it gives a blank cheque for polluting and destructive farming practices to operate in the heart of protected areas.    

Laurence Modrego, Senior Sustainable Agriculture & Food Policy Officer at the WWF European Policy Office, said: “The worst part of this vote is that it dismantles the already limited environmental requirements farmers must meet to receive CAP funding, without addressing the real causes of their struggles. It completely misses the point of why farmers have been protesting for the past two years, and instead will accelerate the loss of healthy farmland, weaken the protection of sensitive ecosystems, and reduce our resilience to climate shocks. Any short-term gains for farmers’ livelihoods will be marginal at best, and far overweighed in the near future.”  

Supporting the AGRI Committee’s amendments on 24 September, the European Parliament has last week voted to: 

  • Give a free pass to the destruction of Natura 2000 sites, automatically marking farms on protected land as CAP-compliant. 

  • Weaken protections for soils and ecosystems by scrapping measures against erosion (GAEC 5) and stripping safeguards for Natura 2000 grasslands (GAEC 9). 

  • Add more uncertainty for farmers with yet another rushed and unclear reform - the second in just over a year - making it harder for farms to plan and invest for the future and further eroding trust in public authorities and policy-makers. 

"A significant proportion of Natura 2000 sites in Central and Eastern Europe is farmland, acknowledging the contribution of nature-friendly agriculture to the conservation of biodiversity in the “Green Heart of Europe”. With this vote, farmers that take good care of their land on Natura 2000 sites will lose out while those who do not will gain. This is not only grossly unfair but also risks depriving society of beautiful landscapes producing healthy food, nurturing rare plants and animals, and safeguarding clean water we all depend on," comments Irene Lucius, WWF-CEE Regional Conservation Director.

With the Council having adopted its position on this simplification package on 10 September, trilogue negotiations are expected to kick off in the coming weeks. In parallel, discussions on the Commission’s post-2027 CAP proposal* remain ongoing. 

NOTES TO EDITORS: 

  • GAECs, the so-called ‘conditionality’ elements of the CAP, require farmers to meet basic environmental standards in order to receive CAP subsidies. 

  • While the European Commission’s proposal for the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) includes some improvements to make the distribution of CAP funds fairer, it severely risks undermining efforts to foster sustainable food practices by granting Member States full flexibility to define the degree of environmental protection and by watering down requirements for agri-environmental and climate actions.