The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that the European Commission proposes to implement between 2028 and 2034 is far more than a simple revision of the current system. The proposal reshapes the financial framework, changes the way subsidies are distributed, and expands the decision-making powers of Member States. For Spain—one of the European Union’s largest recipients of agricultural funding—the reform presents significant opportunities, but also important budgetary and territorial risks.
The proposal is not yet final. It must still be negotiated by the Member States and the European Parliament as part of the next Multiannual Financial Framework. Spain will be required to submit its new national plan in 2027, which the Commission will assess before it is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2028.
The Spanish government has set out three key demands: to maintain, at a minimum, the current budget; to preserve the CAP as a distinct European policy with its own regulatory framework; and to prevent sector-specific measures from becoming subject to national decisions that could create inequalities between Member States.
The CAP Loses Its Independent Financial Structure
The most significant change concerns the architecture of the budget. The Commission proposes integrating the CAP into the so-called National and Regional Partnership Plans, which would bring together policies that are currently managed separately, including agriculture, cohesion, territorial development, fisheries, and other investment programmes.
The combined fund would amount to €865 billion. Within this envelope, at least €293.7 billion would be earmarked for income support payments to farmers and livestock producers, while €6.3 billion would finance a new safety net designed to respond to crises and market disruptions.
Member States would also have access to a further €453 billion to address their national priorities, including agriculture and rural development. However, unlike the current system, these resources would not be reserved exclusively for farming but would instead be allocated among different policy areas within each national plan.
This is one of Spain’s main concerns. Under the current framework, agricultural support is channelled through two clearly defined funds: the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), which primarily finances direct payments and market measures, and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
The new proposal would abolish this separation. According to Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, this change weakens the CAP’s identity and reduces certainty over the level of funding that will ultimately reach the agricultural sector.
Spain has been allocated €47.724 billion in European agricultural funding for the 2021–2027 financial period. This figure illustrates the importance of the upcoming negotiations. However, it is still impossible to determine how much the country will receive from 2028 onwards, as the final allocation will depend on both the overall budget agreement and the content of Spain’s future national plan.
More Targeted Support and a €100,000 Payment Cap
Brussels intends to replace several of the current direct payment schemes with a degressive area-based income support payment. Under the proposal, the amount received would gradually decrease as the size of the holding increases, with a maximum annual payment of €100,000 per beneficiary.
Member States would be able to combine this payment with lump-sum amounts, specific top-ups, or coupled support linked to particular agricultural sectors. The main objective is to direct public funding towards those who rely on farming as their primary source of income.
A simplified scheme is also envisaged for small farms, providing annual payments of up to €3,000. In addition, enhanced support would be available for young farmers, new entrants, and women, through supplementary payments or dedicated aid schemes.
This approach could benefit a large share of Spain’s professional and family farming sector, which is characterised by the predominance of small and medium-sized holdings. However, its actual impact will depend on how key concepts such as professional farmer, main economic activity, family farm, and effective beneficiary are ultimately defined.
The proposal also introduces a particularly sensitive change: from 2032 onwards, pensioners would no longer be eligible to receive the new area-based income support payment. The Commission argues that this measure would encourage generational renewal. However, its implementation could have significant implications for Spain, where the average age of farm holders is relatively high and many family farms rely on gradual intergenerational succession.
Eco-Schemes Would Be Replaced by a Single Environmental Instrument
The future CAP would also reshape its so-called green architecture. The current eco-schemes and agri-environmental commitments would be merged into a new framework of environmental and climate actions.
The change would be more than merely cosmetic. These payments could become genuine incentives rewarding farmers for the environmental services they provide, rather than simply compensating them for additional costs or income losses resulting from environmental requirements.
This approach could benefit Spanish farms if it enables measures tailored to challenges such as water scarcity, soil erosion, desertification, soil conservation, and reduced input use. It could also help address some of the administrative complexity associated with the implementation of current eco-schemes.
However, the success of the system will depend on whether the required practices are agronomically feasible and adequately remunerated. The Commission itself acknowledges that farmers’ participation will require appropriate incentives, clear rules, and measures adapted to regional conditions.
The proposal also envisages that 43% of expenditure under the future national plans should contribute to environmental and climate objectives. It further includes investments in efficiency, digitalisation, advisory services, and climate change adaptation.
Greater Flexibility, but a Risk of an Uneven CAP
The greater discretion granted to national governments could allow support measures to be better adapted to Spain’s diverse agricultural landscape. Mediterranean crops, permanent plantations, irrigated farming, extensive livestock systems, and farms located in disadvantaged areas could all receive interventions specifically designed to meet their particular needs.
However, this increased flexibility also carries one of the reform’s main risks: the renationalisation of the CAP. If each Member State sets different priorities within a shared funding envelope, European farmers could end up competing under significantly different levels of public support.
The proposal also increases the responsibilities of both the Spanish government and the regional authorities. The allocation of resources will need to strike a balance between very different production models while ensuring that agriculture does not lose out in competition with other national spending priorities.
Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, the autonomous communities, farmers’ organisations, and agricultural cooperatives have adopted a common position, calling for the CAP budget to be maintained, for the policy to retain its own legal framework and dedicated funding, and for sectoral measures to continue being governed by European rather than purely national criteria. According to the Spanish government, the progress made in the negotiations so far remains insufficient.
A Benefit or a Setback for Spain?
The proposed reform contains several potentially positive elements: stronger support for professional farmers, enhanced assistance for small farms, young farmers, and women, a cap on large payments, more flexible environmental incentives, and a European reserve to respond to crises.
However, these advantages do not resolve the key question: how much funding will actually be guaranteed for Spanish agriculture. Integrating the CAP into a broader funding envelope reduces budgetary transparency and opens the possibility that agriculture, rural development, and other policy areas will have to compete for the same financial resources.
For this reason, it is still impossible to conclude whether the future CAP will ultimately benefit or disadvantage Spain. Its impact will depend on three issues that remain unresolved: the final size of the budget, the degree of protection afforded to agricultural funding, and the extent to which the European Union retains the ability to ensure a level playing field among Member States.
Simplifying the system could improve its administration, but this alone would not compensate for a reduction in funding. For Spain, the negotiations will determine not only how much farmers and livestock producers receive from 2028 onwards, but also whether the CAP remains a genuinely common European policy or evolves into a collection of national priorities producing different outcomes across the Union.
