European Commission Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Fields Under Fire: Ukraine and the EU’s Agriculture

December 12, 2025 ARC

Three years on from Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian farmers are still struggling to navigate the lasting legacy of the occupation in Europe’s breadbasket. With the relationship between the EU and the war-torn country set to deepen in the coming years, Ukrainian journalist Anna Romandash takes a deep dive on the current state of affairs on the ground and how to step forward beyond symbolic solidarity and into concrete support. […]

EU Budget: From Green Deal to Raw Deal for the Environment

November 11, 2025 Natasha Foote

Brussels is still sifting through the wreckage of the budget bombshell the European Commission dropped in July. As the dust settles, one question looms large: who wins, and who’s left behind? In this ARC2020 mini-series, we unpack the ripple effects — and collateral damage — of the EU’s radical budget proposal, this time diving into the potential environmental impact. […]

LEAK: CAP Crumbles as EU Eyes Radical Post-2027 Overhaul

July 14, 2025 Natasha Foote

The European Commission is preparing to tear up the architecture of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in what could set the stage for a radical overhaul of the EU’s farming subsidy programme, according to leaked drafts. Natasha Foote reports from Brussels. […]

The EU’s New Big Budget Bombshell – Here’s What We Know So Far

July 9, 2025 Natasha Foote

Buckle up – July is shaping up to be a blockbuster month for the EU agrifood sector. In a double-whammy move, the European Commission is set to unveil not one but two major proposals on 16 July that will shape the sector’s future: the blueprint for the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the next €1.2 trillion EU budget. Natasha Foote talks you through what’s brewing in Brussels and the panic in the corridors of power. […]

This Farmer Says He’s Not Drowning in Paperwork – He’s Swimming in EU Money

June 25, 2025 Natasha Foote

A few weeks ago, I came to a shocking realisation. After 6 years of writing about the ins and outs of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – the politics, the people, the policy, the reform(s), and every angle in between – I had never actually seen the CAP subsidy application form. […]

Pruning the EU’s Farming Policy: Have CAP’s Green Shoots Survived the Shears?

May 20, 2025 Natasha Foote

The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is once again being trimmed down to size, with the Commission reaching for the shears in an attempt to cut back what it sees as an overgrown subsidy programme. But it’s not just the deadwood that is being cut away, but also some of its remaining green shoots. Natasha Foote brings you the latest from Brussels. […]

LEAK – Sneak Peek At New EU Farming Policy Simplification Shake-Up

May 12, 2025 Natasha Foote

Leaner but not greener with a new era of flexibility and power to member states – these are some of the changes on the menu for the EU’s new plan to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy, according to a leaked document that ARC2020 got its hands on. Natasha Foote gives you a sneak peek of what’s to come. […]

Spilling Europe’s Dirty Secrets: Uncorking the Toxic Trade in Banned Pesticides

April 17, 2025 Natasha Foote

Pesticides deemed too toxic for Europe are still being produced here and sold abroad to be sprayed on fields where farm workers live, work, and raise their children – but these are also fields that help feed Europe. What is the human cost behind Europe’s toxic trade in banned pesticides? And, as the EU looks at ways to realign its trade standards, why does it continue to put profit over people? To uncork this double standard, ARC2020’s Natasha Foote reports from the ground in South Africa. […]

Why Simplification of CAP May Get Complicated

April 9, 2025 Natasha Foote

A simpler, streamlined EU farming subsidy programme can only be a good thing … right? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Here, Natasha Foote digs into what we currently know about the next simplification shake up of the Common Agricultural Policy and why keeping it simple is not always so straightforward. […]

LEAK: A sneak peek at the EU’s new blueprint for agrifood policy

February 13, 2025 Natasha Foote

Tough on trade, but more lax on CAP – that’s a quick summary of the EU’s new blueprint for agriculture and food, according to a leaked draft that ARC2020 got its hands on. So what’s on the menu for agrifood policy for the next 5 years? Natasha Foote takes a first look at what the Vision envisages for the sector. […]

Seeds, New GMOs & Food Policy Councils – Diversity Event Comes to Dublin

October 31, 2023 Oliver Moore

The 12th Forum of the European Coordination of Let’s Liberate Diversity, held in the Irish capital, drew over 100 participants from all over Europe and beyond, including Minister of State at the Irish Department of Agriculture, Pippa Hackett. The importance of agrobiodiversity, of food policy councils and the risks of the proposed European seed marketing proposal emerged as key themes from a vibrant event held in Dublin last week. […]

GMO-Free Europe – Still Possible?

September 13, 2023 Ashley Parsons

In Brussels, resistance is brewing against the European Commission’s bold plans for new GMO technologies (NGTs) in plant breeding, unveiled on July 5. The stage for this showdown was set at the 10th GMO-Free Europe Conference, a collaborative effort between the GMO-Free Network and the Green European Parliament group. Here, a diverse coalition of 200+ experts, practitioners, scientists, consumers, and policy-makers converged to dissect the Commission’s proposal from every angle. Ashley Parsons reports. […]

Pesticide Regulation too Important to Delay – Civil Society Orgs

November 10, 2022 ARC

ARC2020, along with 28 other organisations, wrote and co-signed a letter on the unacceptable delays in introducing the EU’s pesticide regulation, called SUR (Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products). Below is the full text of the letter, which was sent to Ministers for Agriculture, Environment and Health, the President of the European Parliament, AGRI and ENVI coordinators, and members of the AGRI and ENVI Committees. […]

EU Institutions – Productivity Now, Environment Maybe Later

March 25, 2022 Oliver Moore

With war in Ukraine, the EU institutions made a concerted effort to shore up its highly exposed agri-industrial food system this week. Emergency money and ecologically protected lands are to be used for food security – as expressed through animal feed and mineral fertilizer supply. Along the way, delays and derailings to greener transition have occurred in pesticides regulation, in environmental elements of CAP, and more. So is the EU Green Deal becoming pie in the sky? Oliver Moore and Ashley Parsons report. […]

Farm 2 Fork | EU Has Caved to Eco-Lobby, Complains Big Ag

May 25, 2020 Louise Kelleher

Unusually for these times, this week a cautious optimism is in the air. The European Commission has unveiled its much anticipated Farm to Fork strategy, and stuck to its guns with relatively ambitious new targets for agriculture. Predictably enough, the agri-lobby was not happy. Louise Kelleher walks us through the reactions. […]