Source: European Parliament
The Commission is fully aware of the challenges faced by farmers such as the drought conditions in Romania.
To address these challenges, the Vision for Agriculture and Food presented on 19 February 2025[1] contains an ambitious roadmap and different work streams towards an agri-food system that is attractive, competitive, sustainable and fair for current and future generations, including trade and simplification.
Trade agreements, like the EU-MERCOSUR Partnership Agreement, strike a balance between both the EU offensive and defensive interests of the agri-food sector.
Trade agreements open new export opportunities for the EU agri-food sector, to the benefit of EU farmers income. At the same time the EU agri-food sector relies on imports from third countries.
Moreover, imported products need to fully comply with EU sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards (SPS). These standards include the ban of hormones in cattle raising in both domestic and imported products.
The current autonomous trade measures[2] for Ukraine include strengthened safeguards setting caps on imports of certain agricultural products from Ukraine. They helped stabilising markets and provide stability and predictability for farmers on both sides.
Meanwhile, the Commission continues its efforts to simplify the delivery of the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in view of reducing the administrative burden and providing more flexibility to farmers and national administrations. The second simplification package of the current CAP is expected for the second quarter of 2025.
- [1] https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/vision-agriculture-food_en#:~:text=Shaping%20the%20future%20of%20farming%20and%20the%20agri-food,entire%20value%20chain%20within%20the%20EU%20and%20globally
- [2] Regulation (EU) 2024/1392 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on temporary trade-liberalisation measures supplementing trade concessions applicable to Ukrainian products under the Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part (ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1392/oj).