COPA-COGECA

Every day, Europe’s farmers and agri-food actors provide citizens with safe, high-quality and nutritious food, alongside feed, fuel and fibre. In doing so, they strengthen Europe’s resilience, sustainability and stability in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment. The EU Competitiveness Agenda and Competitiveness Fund 2028–2034 must place agriculture and the agri-food chain at their core—because they are at the heart of the European project, a pillar of 🇪🇺 economy, security and way of life. 4⃣0⃣signing organisations consider the European Competitiveness Fund a major opportunity to mobilise investments in agriculture, food and the whole agri-food chain - including its processing and manufacturing activities - within the future #MFF enabling deployment of key strategic investments for infrastructure, services and skills focusing on strategic actions and reducing the investment gap of the sector. 📢Our call to the @Europarl_EN: Investing in the EU’s agriculture and food sectors across the whole agri food chain means investing in Europe’s security, resilience, growth, and its future. Europe needs to ensure that agriculture and food sectors receive the recognition they require to continue contributing to Europe’s competitiveness and the future of the European project.

At the European Parliament, AGRI Committee hearing on the follow-up to the EU Fertiliser Strategy, @gormanifa (Copa Vice-President, @IFAmedia, Ireland) and @max_schulman (@MTKry, Finland) highlighted yesterday the urgent challenges facing European farmers due to rising fertiliser prices, #CBAM additional cost, supply uncertainties and need for actions in the immediate, medium and long term . 📢 Francie Gorman stressed: “As farmers, we are adapting, delaying purchases, optimising nutrient use, and exploring alternatives, but policy support is lagging behind. Urgent action is needed: The €540M Agricultural Reserve is a step, but we need now that all Member States raise support up to 200% national top-up in parallel to common EU approach to address rising input costs and restore a competitive fertiliser market, before the 2026-2027 season”. Farmers need a fertiliser market that delivers both reliable supply and affordable prices. Without swift action to address market distortions and restore competitiveness, many producers will face serious difficulties in financing fertiliser purchases for the 2026–2027 season and beyond, with consequences for production, food security, and the resilience of European agriculture. CAP flexibility is not enough, fragmented national responses risk distorting the Single Market. 📢 Max Schulman added: “Farmers are innovating, from precision agriculture to nutrient recycling, but while organic fertilisers play a crucial role in improving nutrient circularity, we cannot substitute mineral fertilisers -> both sources remain complementary. Without affordable fertilisers, there is no competitive agriculture. Without competitive agriculture, there is no food security, no successful environmental transition and no genuine European strategic autonomy. ” 👉 The fertiliser market is currently failing European farmers. Prices remain far beyond the 2019 levels, production costs are increasing, and the policy response needs to look to all solutions for now and for the future.

At lunchtime, the @COPACOGECA Presidencies had the opportunity to engage in an open and wide-ranging discussion with Agriculture Commissioner @CHansenEU. We thank the Commissioner for listening to 🇪🇺 farmers and agri-cooperatives and for his continued engagement in shaping the future of the sector. We highlighted the decisive importance of the key political files to be addressed during the second half of 2026 and their implications for the future of European agriculture: ➡️The need for a strong Common Agricultural Policy, supported by an adequate and dedicated budget. ➡️The contribution of farmers and agri-cooperatives to Europe's growth and competitiveness agenda. ➡️The importance of immediate, medium- and long-term actions on fertilisers, including the effective implementation across the EU of the European Commission’s proposed plan. ➡️The need to accelerate progress on the EU simplification agenda.

👩‍🌾Women farmers are essential to the future of 🇪🇺 agriculture🌾 Copa and Cogeca’s Women’s Committee commends the @Ireland2026eu for placing women in agriculture on the agenda of its very 1st #AGRIFISH Council, at a pivotal moment as the International Year of Women Farmers 2026 continues. This important exchange reflects a growing recognition that strengthening the role of women is not only a matter of equality, but also of the competitiveness, resilience and long-term sustainability of EU farming. Copa and Cogeca's Presidents underlined the priorities championed by our Women's Committee: 🏡 Access to land remains one of the biggest barriers facing women and new entrants. 💶 Access to finance continues to present structural challenges, despite women farmers consistently demonstrating strong entrepreneurial potential. 🌱 Generational renewal and women's participation go hand in hand. Young women are more likely to establish, remain in and return to farming when they have the same opportunities to build viable farm businesses. The EU has an important role to play by: ✅ promoting the exchange of best practices between Member States; ✅ ensuring future CAP and rural development instruments recognise women's contribution; ✅ improving gender data collection and monitoring; ✅ expanding access to financial instruments through the @EIB and @EIF_EU. As the #IYWF2026 continues, we have a unique opportunity to move from recognition to action. Our ambition should be to ensure that 2026 leaves a lasting legacy through concrete policy improvements that make farming a more attractive, accessible and rewarding profession for #WomenFarmers across Europe.

First meeting with @martinheydonfg, Ireland's Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine 🇮🇪 who will chair the #AGRIFISH Council for the next 6️⃣ months as part of the @Ireland2026eu Presidency of the Council of the 🇪🇺 ➡️ In a context of difficult market situation, geopolitical uncertainty, challenging climatic conditions affecting farmers and agri-cooperatives across Europe, investing in agriculture means investing in EU' stability and security. For this first exchange, Copa President @masgiansanti and Cogeca's VP Leonardo Pofferi outlined a number of the key agricultural issues currently shaping the EU political agenda and on the table of #AGRIFISH Ministers today: *️⃣ CAP must remain a truly common policy with a dedicated and protected budget increased adapted to inflation *️⃣ Fair trade, with a specific monitoring on the implementation of EU-Mercosur agreement. GIs are key, along with ensuring effective market access for the most valuable exports. *️⃣ No cuts on Promotion policy Budget. Promotion is a successful EU policy to strengthen 🇪🇺 competitiveness. *️⃣ Livestock/Protein strategies 🟰 a welcome reset of the @EU_Commission's view, which needs to be followed by concrete actionns for the ground. *️⃣ Role of Women in agriculture is a very important focus by the Irish Presidency. Copa-Cogeca with its Women Commitee will contribute to all the work in this International Year of Women farmers! The Irish Presidency takes office at a decisive moment for European agriculture with discussions on MFF/#CAP expected to advance rapidly by the end of the year. 🚜 We count on a Presidency, from a country where agriculture plays such a central role, to ensure agriculture and food have the recognition it deserves for Europe's future.

🇮🇪🇪🇺Ní neart go cur le chéile - Strength with unity This morning, @COPACOGECA welcomed Mary Carey Counsellor, spokesperson for the Special Committee on Agriculture, to discuss the priorities for agriculture during the @Ireland2026eu Presidency with Copa and Cogeca national member organisations. Thank you for your insights and determination! Strength with unity starts with an European Common Agriculture Policy, the very policy on which the EU project was built on 🏛️ The next months will define in a profound way the future of the EU farming community, with discussions on MFF/CAP expected to progress rapidly, we count on Irish Presidency to ensure that food security, the income of our farmers and the role of agri-cooperatives will be at centre of Europe’s future🧑‍🌾👩‍🌾

🧶This afternoon, the European Parliament will hold, for the first time in plenary, a debate dedicated to wool and it is right to put this issue high on the political agenda! 👉Wool is an extraordinary natural material. It is thermoregulating, insulating, fire-resistant, naturally antibacterial and self-cleaning. It has the potential to support the green transition across multiple sectors, from construction and insulation to textiles and furniture. Valorising wool is essential to maintaining pastoralism, often in some of 🇪🇺 most challenging rural and mountainous areas. Grazing not only sustains these communities but also helps reduce wildfire risks and preserve open landscapes. Yet today, because of a lack of outlets and regulatory bottlenecks, much of the wool produced by European sheep farmers is simply discarded after shearing. This is both absurd and a huge missed opportunity! @COPACOGECA, which has brought this issue to the forefront, support today's debate in the @Europarl_EN called by MEPs @MariaWalshEU, @MEPDanielBuda and @HerbertDorfmann. As the EU Livestock Strategy explicitly recognises that wool is not a waste but rather a valuable resource and it commits to reviewing regulatory bottlenecks to facilitate its use, we now need a strong political signal and to translate it in concrete actions to unlock wool potential. 🔗Discover our proposals to revalorise the value of wool: copa-cogeca.eu/publications 🐑 Europe needs a #ReWoolution

IFA's Liam MacHale with Mary Carey, Agriculture Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU, following the presentation of Ireland's EU Presidency and agriculture priorities to the meeting of @COPACOGECA farm organisation representatives today. 🇮🇪🇪🇺

🗣️At the High-Level Conference celebrating 10 years of the #EU4AnimalHealth Law, @M_Higuera, Chairman of the @COPACOGECA's Working Party on Animal Health & Welfare, shared farmers' perspective on its implementation. 🇪🇺 farms are increasingly exposed to transboundary animal diseases due to climate change, wildlife interactions and animal movements. While the Animal Health Law remains a strong and robust framework, consistent implementation across Member States can be improved through greater flexibility, ensuring the rules remain fit for future challenges. 💪A strong Animal Health Law requires strong financial support for disease prevention, surveillance, biosecurity, outbreak response, eradication, as well as research and innovation.

🇪🇺🇲🇽Following today's approval by the @Europarl_EN of the modernised EU–Mexico Agreement, @COPACOGECA underline that the agreement has the potential to strengthen EU agri-food exports and regulatory cooperation. Delivering on that potential, however, will require effective implementation, robust enforcement and careful monitoring of its impact on sensitive agricultural sectors. 🍯Copa and Cogeca remain particularly concerned by the additional 35,000-tonne tariff-rate quota for Mexican honey, given the cumulative impact of successive trade concessions on an already fragile EU beekeeping sector 🐝 👀Now, the 🇪🇺 Commission and the Mexican authorities must ensure the effective protection of geographical indications, deliver measurable cooperation on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, animal health and animal welfare, and closely monitor tariff-rate quotas and their cumulative impact on sensitive agricultural sectors. 🔗Read full Press Release: copa-cogeca.eu/press-releases

🔥Today’s @Europarl_EN debate on heatwaves & wildfires highlighted the urgent need for structural risk reduction. From farmers and forest owners’ perspective, the shift must be clear: from a firefighting‑centered model to one grounded in structural risk reduction, giving prevention the same political and financial priority as suppression activities. 🌿 Active land management through grazing, diversified forest structure, coordinated fuel reduction and sustained rural viability, plays a decisive role in wildfire prevention. Grazing reduces fuel loads, prevents land abandonment and helps limit wildfire risks, making livestock a key tool for preventive land management, as also recognised in the new EU Livestock Strategy🐄🐂 @COPACOGECA strongly believe that 🇪🇺, with the support of the new tools include in integrated wildifire risks management, needs to improve its ability to mobilise existing territorial actors and structures, rather than relying solely on emergency-response mechanisms➡️Orienting funds and incentives towards preventive actions are key.

🗳️Congratulations to the newly elected chairmanship of the @COPACOGECA Working Party on Risk Management and Insurance: Chair Paola Grossi (@coldiretti 🇮🇹), Vice Chairs Monica Sanz (@CoopsAgroES 🇪🇸) and Thomas Gehrke (@Bauern_Verband 🇩🇪) They'll lead the Working Party forward and tackle the key challenges ahead!

As it is already approaching the midpoint of its mandate, the @EU_Commission just presented its long-awaited #Livestock Strategy and #Protein Plan, 2 flagship communications announced in the Vision for Agriculture and Food. The 2️⃣ Communications primarily mark an important shift in tone. After years in which livestock was too often portrayed as part of the problem, the Commission now recognises its contribution to food security, rural vitality, the circular economy, and the production of high-quality proteins and renewable energy. However, both remain heavily focused on assessments, monitoring and benchmarking, while even a careful reading of the annexes makes it difficult to identify concrete actions or measures that would deliver tangible relief for farmers on the ground. For @COPACOGECA, this ambition can only be realised if it is accompanied by concrete legislative and financial measures. These should include: 👉A legislative initiative to simplify permitting procedures for agricultural projects as part of a broader review of the EU nature legislation framework 👉A pragmatic revision of the Nitrates Directive 👉An ambitious and adequately funded Common Agricultural Policy, including coupled support where appropriate 👉A coherent trade policy that effectively protects the agricultural sector 👉A genuine long-term strategy for research and innovation in plant protein production; 👉Dedicated resources to promote European agricultural products at a time when significant cuts to the EU promotion policy budget are in the pipeline We are now almost halfway through the mandate of this European Commission. Given the time required for deliberation within the 🇪🇺 institutions, it is high time to move from the stage of intentions to that of action, if we are to see the first common-sense measures delivered before the end of this term. 🔗Read full Press Release: copa-cogeca.eu/press-releases

Today, I visited feed and vitamins production companies in 🇩🇪 & 🇫🇷 showing the innovation, science and expertise behind European animal nutrition. This is the kind of strength we want to build on with tomorrow’s Livestock Strategy & Protein Plan #StayTuned 🐄

⏰In an hour the @Europarl_EN is voting under a fast-track procedure on the @EU_Commission's proposal to inject much-needed liquidity to support farmers facing the persistent fertiliser crisis. 🔔Alarm bells are ringing for the 2026/27 cropping season: the fertiliser-to-cereals price ratio remains at its worst level since 2022, putting farmers' purchasing power under severe pressure. We hope the 🇪🇺Parliament will vote with one voice in support of these measures. However, it is important to remember that this package is far from being a silver bullet for Europe's farmers, especially as every measure remains optional for Member States.

📃CBAM safeguard for fertilisers: ENVI Committee removes the only crisis safety valve for farmers @EP_Environment adopted yesterday its report on the revision of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. While farmers and agri-cooperatives had hoped that 🇪🇺 Parliament would strengthen the proposal by ensuring greater resilience during periods of market disruption, the Committee instead chose to delete the only provision that would have allowed for the temporary suspension of the #CBAM on fertilisers in times of crisis (Article 27a). The proposal put forward to include cereals for export in the temporary decarbonisation fund would be little more than a sticking plaster. It would benefit only export-oriented cereals, leaving most of the EU's internal crop market without support to offset the effects of the CBAM. Moreover, the fund is intended to last only 2⃣years, whereas the CBAM is a permanent mechanism whose costs are expected to increase progressively until 2034. Copa and Cogeca therefore call on MEPs to urgently rectify this decision during the forthcoming Plenary vote. Parliament still can restore a credible and operational crisis safeguard that protects 🇪🇺farmers when they need it most, while preserving the EU's industrial ambitions. Europe's farmers should not be left to bear the full cost of future market shocks without any emergency safety mechanism. 🔗Read full Statement: copa-cogeca.eu/press-releases