Image Credit: Thierry Monasse / Contributor / Getty 
For a brief moment, it looked like Brussels had bowed to the unprecedented mobilization of farmers and member states against the EU’s planned agricultural budget reforms. However, the final draft proposal, leaked just a day before its official unveiling on Wednesday, July 16th, proved that the enthusiasm was premature.
Despite the explicit demands coming from the sector, the Commission is forging ahead with the idea of merging the agricultural subsidies (CAP) with cohesion funds, as well as tying payments to specific targets—the so-called ‘cash-for-reforms’ model—and scrapping the previous region-based allocation in favor of a more flexible, centrally administered system.
According to the plans, both the CAP and cohesion funds will be incorporated into a much larger cash pot, called the ‘Sustainable Prosperity and Security Fund.’ As the name signals, it will also include funding lines related to the green transition and defense, among others, and allow capitals to shift around EU funding between these lines as they see fit.
This means that farmers will no longer have a guaranteed financial instrument dedicated to just them that they can count on for the long term.
Moreover, there will be a clearer balance between incentives and mandatory rules that farmers will have to comply with, and the individual subsidy schemes designed by member states will have to be more targeted, focusing on small farms, women, young farmers, and tough-to-farm areas.
This will likely be presented by the Commission on Wednesday as a compromise solution, with Brussels claiming that there’s no reason for any concerns, as the direct agricultural subsidies will remain a core element of the budget (even if cut by around 20%), as outlined in a separate document earlier to calm down the nerves.
However, that’s not what farmers and member states have been asking for. A giant petition with the unprecedented support of over 6,200 farmers’ organizations from across the bloc, as well as a coalition of 20 member states—including heavyweights such as France, Spain, Italy, and Poland—explicitly demands the continuation of an independent CAP in the 2028-2034 budget.
“We cannot accept the dissolution of the CAP into a single fund or any attempt at further renationalization,” the petition, launched by the bloc’s largest farmers’ lobby, COPA-COGECA, states. Instead, it calls for a “dedicated, safeguarded, and inflation-adjusted” budget line for CAP.
“This is not just a technical demand—it is a strategic necessity,” it adds, warning that any dilution of subsidies could have catastrophic consequences for Europe’s food security.
Similarly, member states have also been demanding to preserve the independence of cohesion funds, so the proposal ignores their will on multiple counts. It will be up to them to hold their ground against the Commission during the coming budget negotiations in the next year or so, but based on past experience, they usually give in to von der Leyen’s pressure one by one.
The farmers, however, don’t plan to give up. COPA-COGECA has called for yet another giant protest in front of the EU Commission in Brussels on Wednesday, the day the plan will be officially unveiled.
🚨 SECOND MOBILISATION OF 🇪🇺 FARMING COMMUNITIES IN BRUSSELS
— COPA-COGECA (@COPACOGECA) July 10, 2025
📛Without clarity or reassurance from the @EU_Commission on the future EU budget and #CAP
📛With the persistent echo of silent budget cuts to agricultural policy.
📛 With actions that stand in sharp contrast to… pic.twitter.com/d9UVLEBxVK
The Pre-Covid Forced Inoculation / Lockdown Push Of 2009
