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Press remarks by Commissioners Hansen, Šefčovič and Várhelyi, together with Minister Maria Panayiotou of Cyprus, following the meeting of EU agriculture ministers
Commissioner Hansen
Good afternoon, and first of all, let me wish you a happy new year! I am glad to see that so many of you faced the snow to be here today.
And I can say the same of all ministers, who rallied at such short notice to discuss the future and competitiveness of our agriculture sector.
I have said it many times and I will continue saying it: farming and the agri-food sector are essential for our European sovereignty and strategic autonomy.
And the Common Agricultural Policy is our core instrument to support farmers.
It is our longest standing common policy. It has evolved over years to adapt to new challenges and needs: from climate change to societal demands.
In the future CAP, farmers' income support is safeguarded and guaranteed.
In addition to the minimum €300 billion ring-fenced for farmers in the next budget, we proposed to dedicate at least 10% of resources of each National and Regional partnership Plan to rural development. This represents close to €49 billion. This amount can reach almost €63 billion if we also count the Catalyst Loan. And let me stress again that Member States can always allocate even more money from the Partnership Plan.
Yesterday, we also proposed to Member States to mobilise an additional €45 billion to support farmers and rural communities. This would be additional money coming towards agriculture and farmers.
Let's also not forget that the agri-food sector will also benefit from the European Competitiveness Fund and the Research programme with €40 billion dedicated to biotech, bioeconomy, health and agriculture.
From the beginning we have set out to ensure predictable income support for farmers.
We listened to concerns and we delivered.
We presented our ambitions and programme for the agri-food sector in the Vision for agriculture and food almost one year ago.
Competitive, sustainable, resilient and fair. These are our objectives for the food and farming sector and this is what we started putting in place last year.
I worked for a fairer food supply chain and to make generational renewal of farmers a political priority.
We delivered several simplification packages for the agricultural sector: on the CAP but also on food safety issues and environmental legislation, led by my colleagues Oliver Várhelyi and Jessika Roswall.
We will continue our work in that regard. In the coming months, I will hold, together with Jessika Roswall, an implementation dialogue with the farming community to discuss the Water framework Directive, the Nature Directive and the Nitrates Directive. This is directly responding to the call to consider the cumulative impact and proportionality of these rules on our farmers.
In the Vision, we also introduced the principle that no substances banned in the EU should come back via imported products. This is very important to ensure reciprocity and fair treatment for our producers. This must be done in full respect of our trade partners, and this is why we launched an impact assessment to consider all implications before taking legal action.
My colleagues Maroš Šefčovič and Olivér Várhelyi will tell you more about our work to ensure stronger reciprocity and protect our farmers, notably in relation to the high costs of fertilisers.
I also want to thank Minister Panayiotou for co-hosting this meeting with us, and I wish her best of luck for the Presidency! It is off to a strong start.
Thank you.
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Commissioner Šefčovič
Let me add a few remarks from a trade perspective, with one clear objective in mind: safeguarding the global competitiveness of the EU agri-food sector.
I have briefed Ministers on our work to lower fertiliser costs and support the domestic fertiliser industry, particularly given persistently high energy prices.
Keeping fertilisers affordable is vital for farmers' incomes and Europe's food security, which requires both diversifying supply sources and reinforcing our own production capacity.
While prices have stabilised, fertiliser costs remain around 60 percent higher than in 2020. That is simply not sustainable.
This is why the Commission is putting forward an additional, targeted response.
We will propose to temporarily suspend the remaining MFN tariffs on ammonia, urea and – where necessary – other fertilisers. Robust safeguards will ensure that this relief is well-targeted and that its benefits flow directly to farmers.
The measure can enter into force swiftly, in 2026, and its impact would broadly offset the costs linked to the CBAM that took effect this January.
We will also issue guidance on a new measure - proposed by the Commission in Dec 2025 and which needs to be approved by the co-legislators – that would allow for a temporary suspension of CBAM on certain goods, such as fertilizers, should the market monitoring indicate unforeseen circumstances.
We will continue to monitor fertiliser prices closely, including through the Fertilisers Market Observatory.
Looking ahead, the Commission will present a Fertiliser Action Plan in the second quarter of this year. The focus will be on greater market transparency and on scaling up recycled nutrients and alternative inputs, supported by regulatory adjustments where needed.
Overall, trade is a powerful way to cut costs. And free trade agreements are a strategic necessity.
Let me be absolutely clear: EU agriculture is already a global export powerhouse.
In 2024, our agri-food exports reached 235 billion euros – up 3 percent year on year – delivering a 64-billion-euro surplus.
Trade supports three million jobs across the EU agri-food sector – one job in four.
That is why keeping markets open through EU trade agreements makes strong business sense.
I can assure that farmers' concerns are not an afterthought in our trade policy – they are central.
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Commissioner Várhelyi
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I think there is one sentence to grasp at this meeting, which is that we all agreed that food is the last sector in Europe where we are mostly self-sufficient and where European sovereignty is strong.
And this is why we need to keep it strong. And this is why we need our farmers to be able to continue to deliver that. But to be able to deliver that, they need to be less overburdened. And I think no blame should land on their desk for providing us with the food we eat.
So we were looking at how we can help our farmers to continue to put very high-quality and highly safe food on our table, together with the ethical standards that we all cherish in Europe.
In that, in my portfolio, I think I need to list three areas.
First of all, at the last meeting of the College on the 16th of December last year, we made the so-called omnibus proposal, the Food and Feed Omnibus, where we decided to make life much easier and much more predictable for our farmers.
The first element in the proposal I want to highlight is the fact that we propose to the co-legislators to approve the least hazardous pesticides and substances in an unlimited way. In an unlimited way, because we see that our farmers are having trouble accessing the very pesticides they need to be able to grow their crops.
The second element is the removal of the burden on national authorities' procedures when it comes to renewals of these pesticides, by replacing systemic, time-triggered renewals with much more targeted and more scientific procedures.
The third point when it comes to pesticides is the fact that we need new pesticides to arrive much faster to the market. Currently, it takes eight to ten years to get a product approved, and this is simply not acceptable.
So we want to fast-track the scientifically most advanced and environmentally least harmful plant protection products, namely biocontrol products. This is why we will support this with legislative means — meaning faster procedures and reduced fees for SMEs applying for marketing authorisations. We are making sure that these will be there as alternatives to the products farmers are using, at the time when they need it.
And that leads me to the second very important principle, one that has already been mentioned by Christoph: if something is banned in the EU, then it is banned in the EU.
But the other principle is that whenever we consider phasing out a product, we have to make sure there are alternatives for farmers — and that these alternatives are not only academically present, but available, effective, and affordable by the farmers, so that they have a real alternative on the ground.
This is why this is part and parcel of our proposal. We have also been looking into other parts of the administrative procedures. If you want, I can give further examples, but I think these are the key elements.
With all the simplification we are doing through the omnibus proposal, we should be able to save 1 billion EUR a year for industry, farmers, and administration. This is a significant saving. And since this is an omnibus, I think we had an overall positive welcome from the ministers, and I have pushed them, together with the Cypriot presidency, to get this done in the first quarter of this year. So if we want to make a difference and see progress on the ground, now is the time to act, because we have no time to lose.
The second issue was the MRLs, or the reciprocity. As was already explained, if you want to make the principle that what is banned in the EU is banned in the EU, if you want to make it operational, it has to be more than a political principle — it has to become a legislative principle and this is what we are doing through the omnibus proposal.
It also means that we will run the study which was announced in the Vision for Agriculture, but the direction of travel is set. We will have to revise our system of approving MRLs or how to regulate reciprocity.
Next to this, we are also looking at case-by-case approvals, and here we have found very robust ground for looking substance by substance.
What I can announce to you today is that we have initiated today an internal consultation within the Commission, leading us to a proposal that should be with the Member States in the comitology procedures within a week or two, and to be approved hopefully already in February, putting three substances to the technical zero— carbendazim, benomyl, and thiophanate-methyl. This means that practically from February these residues could be at zero. I do hope again that the Member States will follow up on our proposals and adopt them quickly.
The third issue was import controls, because our trade agreements are only as good as their enforcement, and we are here to enforce the trade agreements, whichever part we are talking about. What we see is that enforcement, especially when it comes to SPS, is becoming even more important. In order to have real reciprocity, we have to improve our controls. This is why we have already increased external checks by 50% this year.
This means more EU vets going to third countries to check local compliance with EU standards and rules. This is also why we will increase EU border control points by at least one third.
When these products arrive in the EU, we have to make sure they fully comply with our rules. That is why we discussed reinforcing the six most important entry points. The Commission is also putting forward proposals to recruit staff and allocate funds to increase capacity.
We will also start a training programme for 650 national officials to strengthen their skills in this area. I do hope that on the 26th of January, together with the Cypriot presidency, when we launch the task force for the actual enforcement of these rules, we will see already results coming in.
Thank you.
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