Enhancing budgetary performance: The future of agricultural spending in a streamlined EU budget

The next EU budget needs to improve its performance to respond to multiple pressing priorities such as industrial competitiveness, climate action and defence. Substantial potential to increase performance lies in agricultural spending. Agriculture, as part of the food system and bioeconomy, can play an important role in the EU’s transition towards a climate neutral, competitive economy and in helping to achieve other societal objectives, such as strategic autonomy, long-term food security and biodiversity protection.

A more performance-driven EU budget could leverage this potential of the land use sectors to deliver such EU added value. This can be achieved by, first, consistently focusing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on rewarding the provision of public goods, second, directing investments towards future-oriented food and bioeconomy value chains, and third, improving the accounting and performance assessment of EU spending.