Council signs off simplification of Common Agricultural Policy 16:23 Council signs off simplification of Common Agricultural Policy. Council of the EU

Today, the Council gave its final green light on the simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The aim is to boost the competitiveness of the European agriculture by cutting red tape, supporting farmers, including small farmers and business start-ups, encouraging innovation and boosting productivity.

The simplification measures could lead to significant reductions in administrative costs for both farmers and national administrations. According to the Commission's initial assessment, they could lead to annual savings of up to €1.6 billion for farmers and more than €200 million for member states' administrations.

The revised law forms the so-called 'Omnibus III' legislative package proposed by the Commission in May 2025. The package contains amendments to the strategic plan regulation (SPR) and the 'horizontal' regulation on the Common Agricultural Policy. It is the second of a series of simplification files on which co-legislators reach agreement in a record time following "Omnibus II" adopted by the Council last week.

Main elements of the new simplification measures

The simplification measures aim to:

• ease the administrative burden for farmers and administrations
• increase the payments to small farmers and simplify the rules on conditionality, in particular for organic farms
• reduce the on-the-spot checks and delete the annual performance clearance

The revised legislation allows member states to provide crisis payments to active farmers that are affected by natural disasters, adverse climatic events or catastrophic events. Such payments will ensure continuity of the agricultural activity of the affected farmers.

Finally, among other improvements, the revised law:

• provides flexibility to member states to decide to what extent partially organic farms could be considered to fulfil certain environmental standards, the so-called GAECs (good agricultural and environmental conditions)
• improves the possibility for farmers to benefit from risk management tools, and
• increases the percentage rate for advanced direct payments

Next steps

The legislative act will be published in the EU's official journal in the coming days and enter into force the day after its publication.

Background

The simplification package 'Omnibus III' on agriculture is part of a broader political objective of enhancing EU competitiveness, by reducing businesses' administrative burden and creating more favourable conditions for them to operate in the EU. This simplification drive is conducted in response to the impetus from the European Council (March 2023 Conclusions, 2024-2029 Strategic Agenda) that called for simplifying the general regulatory environment and reducing the administrative burden. On 20 March 2025, the European Council in its conclusions urged the co-legislators to take work forward on the Omnibus simplification packages as a matter of priority and with a high level of ambition.

• Regulation on CAP simplification, PE-CONS 49/25, 18 December 2025
• Regulation amending regulation (EU) 2021/2115 as regards the conditionality system, types of intervention in the form of direct payment, types of intervention in certain sectors and rural development and annual performance reports and regulation (EU) 2021/2116 as regards data and interoperability governance, suspensions of payments annual performance clearance and controls and penalties, Commission proposal, 14 May 2025
• Simplification of EU rules (background information)