19-05-2025
Farmers' protests: a year on, Europe's farmers demand change
A recent Euronews event discussed the path forward for Europe's farmers one year after the protests.
One year on from the wave of farmers' protests that swept across Europe, a panel of industry experts, policymakers and farmer and environment representatives came together in Brussels to reflect on the state of agriculture today.
The Farmers' Horizon: Sustainability and Innovation Toolbox event, sponsored by CropLife Europe and hosted by Euronews, cast a clear eye on the sector's evolving challenges and ambitions, drawing insights from a newly published Ipsos survey, Farmers' Horizon 2025, which highlighted the ongoing frustrations faced by many farmers across the continent.
A key speaker at the event was European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christoph Hansen, who shared the Commission's ongoing efforts to address farmers' demands following the 2024 protests. 'We've already delivered a package on the Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation and the unfair trading practices directive, addressing one key concern: better prices for high-value products to strengthen farmers' position in the value chain,' he noted.
Hansen went on to discuss the continued need to reduce administrative overlaps, particularly for small farms, denying the notion that the Commission was backtracking on environmental commitments. He emphasised that EU regulations would only come into effect if there were no national measures in place, accelerating relief for farmers while ensuring strict sustainability standards.
On the point of investment, Hansen stressed the importance of adequate funding to support both digitisation and sustainable practices. However, with the Ipsos survey results pointing to a weakening economic situation for Europe's farmers, the question for the main debate remained whether Europe's policymakers were doing enough to secure the future of farming.
Damien Barnier, Director of Ipsos Lyon, offered a sobering overview of the results of the 2025 Farmers' Horizon survey, which drew responses from 1,998 European farmers, across nine countries, commissioned by CropLife Europe.
In terms of outlook, 46 per cent of farmers surveyed were pessimistic about the current situation and 51 per cent were pessimistic about the future. Consequently, the report warned, 55 per cent of farmers are ready to protest again – a major cause for alarm among our Brussels audience and the wider European public.
Many farmers showed dissatisfaction with the lack of EU action following the protests and two out of three European farmers reported worsening economic conditions compared to last year. Economic support and administrative simplification were deemed top priorities for farmers across Europe, with 69 per cent claiming that current product prices did not allow for a sufficient profit margin, and 50 per cent struggling to cover basic farm expenses.
International competition from abroad was seen as having a key impact on farmers' bottom line, with 68 per cent reporting worse competition since the protests. Hansen echoed the European Environmental Bureau's (EEB) view here, saying that more needed to be done to stop less-regulated imports entering Europe.
'This doesn't make sense,' he remarked. Tackling this would have dual benefits: enabling better protection of environmental goals and creating fairer market conditions for farmers.
The Ipsos findings underscored the urgency for EU intervention to bridge the gap between policy and realities on the farm. During the panel discussion, Elli Tsiforou, Secretary General of Copa-Cogeca, an organisation representing the voices of 22 million farmers and 22,000 agri-cooperatives around Europe, stressed the need for a more consistent EU presence in member states to fix this gap.
'The strategic dialogue had utility and value, but we need to be more pragmatic,' she said. 'Overproduction of policies - some contradictory - makes it hard for farmers to implement regulation on the ground,' Tsiforou said.
The discussion addressed anticipated Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) adjustments, which the Commission projected would save up to €1.58 billion annually for the farming community. Jens Hartmann, Chair of CropLife Europe, congratulated this move, remarking that the sector is 'moving more towards incentivisation and profitability' for farming businesses, but also suggested that predictability could be improved not only for farmers but for the entire agricultural sector.
Tsiforou raised concerns over the dilution of the CAP into a single fund, noting that Copa-Cogeca would be protesting any rushed changes to the agricultural framework, without clarity regarding financial resources, governance structures, or meaningful consultation with the agricultural sector. 'If we lose [the integrity of the policy], a domino effect could hit the heart of the EU single market," she warned. She further insisted that an adequate budget adapted to inflation was essential, both to the success of the policy and the future success of Europe's farmers.
Théo Paquet, Senior Policy Officer for Agriculture at the EEB agreed that a baseline level of income support was necessary, and he also made the call for stronger environmental schemes. He asserted that Europe's policymakers must provide more incentives for farmers who go beyond basic conservation in order to drive real, sustainable change. 'If we want farmers to produce food in 20, 30 or 40 years, protecting our soils needs to be at the forefront of everyone's minds,' he argued.
One of the central discussions at the event revolved around innovation in agriculture, highlighting how digital farming solutions, precision technology and sustainable crop protection would enhance productivity and sustainability simultaneously, which would also have a positive knock-on effect for farmers' incomes.
Panellists stressed that insufficient investment in new technologies and regulatory delays were hindering innovation and the market entry of safer, more sustainable solutions like biopesticides. Hansen admitted that the European Commission was 'quick to take products off the market but slow to provide alternatives,' leaving farmers with fewer options.
CropLife Europe's Hartmann insisted on the need to maintain a full crop protection toolbox, echoing the sentiment of one third of surveyed farmers in France, Germany, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands. 'Our task is to ensure the farming community has all the right tools to make their lives easier and a simplified process to allow them to do what they do best.'
Hartmann referred to the need to 'put tools directly into the hands of farmers,' providing easier access to technology that could bypass administrative bottlenecks. For sustainable agriculture to succeed, he summarised, the next policy needed to be driven by 'incentivisation, simplicity and innovation.'
The rest of the panel concluded that while digital solutions held enormous promise, achieving widespread adoption would require greater investment and advisory support for farmers during the transition. Without these foundational changes, many farms risked being left out of the digital revolution currently reshaping European agriculture.
While positions on streamlining regulation were met with warnings against backtracking on green ambitions, panellists found common ground on the need for economic incentives and access to innovation to inspire the next generation. 'We need to give hope and fun back to our farmers, not just more paperwork after long working hours.'
The debate underlined the complexity of policymaking in agriculture, whereby the priorities of farmers, innovators and policymakers had to be balanced carefully. However, EEB's Paquet stressed that environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness were not mutually exclusive, stating that they all shared a common goal of working towards a sustainable agricultural future for Europe.
While the Ipsos survey revealed deep economic challenges and the looming threat of future protests, the event closed on a note of cautious optimism. There was a shared commitment to bridge the gap between policy, practice and environmental factors to drive momentum towards a stronger, more resilient European farming sector.
