📢 From Stockholm, Europe's leading farming organisations are sounding the alarm. In a landmark declaration addressed to EU Heads of State and Government meeting in Brussels for the European Council meeting, the European farming community is sending a clear warning: European agriculture is approaching breaking point, and the window to rebuild it on solid foundations is rapidly closing. Agriculture has always been at the heart of the European project. Food security has never been merely an economic concern. It is a foundation of Europe's sovereignty, stability and peace. At a time of mounting geopolitical uncertainty, farming must be recognised as a pillar of Europe's security and defence. This means maintaining a strong, common and properly funded Common Agricultural Policy. 🇪🇺 Europe cannot strengthen its security or aspire to be a global power while weakening its own agricultural foundations. Defending the CAP is therefore not just about defending European agriculture. It is about defending Europe itself! 🔗Read Full #StockholmDeclaration >>>> copa-cogeca.eu/publications

📌As our 12th European Farmers' Congress draws to a close in Stockholm, Copa President Massimiliano Giansanti has outlined four clear priorities for the decisive months ahead: 1️⃣ SECURE A STRONG, COMMON AND PROPERLY FUNDED CAP. A dedicated budget of €500 billion, reflecting the current CAP budget adjusted for inflation, to preserve the CAP's common character, protect the Single Market and ensure a level playing field for European farmers and cooperatives. 2️⃣ PUT AGRICULTURAL COMPETITIVENESS FIRST. Turn promises of simplification into reality, cut unnecessary red tape and involve farmers from the outset. Europe needs policies that enable farmers to produce, invest and innovate, rather than hold them back. 3️⃣ MAKE FOOD SECURITY A PILLAR OF EUROPEAN SECURITY. Europe cannot strengthen its strategic autonomy while weakening its agricultural production capacity. Food security is not optional. It is fundamental to Europe's sovereignty, stability and resilience. 4️⃣ ENSURE FAIR TRADE AND PREPARE FOR EU ENLARGEMENT. Guarantee fair competition, equivalent production standards and effective safeguards. Trade and enlargement must strengthen European agriculture, not undermine its future. As EU budget negotiations enter their decisive phase, Europe's farming organisations will remain more united, vigilant and mobilised than ever. 🚜We are ready to come back to Brussels if necessary. Because this is about more than farming. It is about Europe's food security, rural communities and strategic autonomy.

👩‍🌾15 October is the International Day of #RuralWomen the 12th Copa-Cogeca Congress did more than mark the date, it confronted an uncomfortable truth head-on: women farmers still face structural barriers that have nothing to do with their competence and everything to do with how the system is built #IYWF2026 Collateral requirements are designed around land ownership. Credit assessments that can misread farms because of their scale. Risk perception can penalise women before they've made a single business decision. The result❔ Women who want to invest, innovate and modernise still face many barriers, including from cultural and traditional perceptions. Without encouraging women and especially young women, the generational renewal EU desperately needs is also affected. Francesca Gironi, Chairwoman of the @COPACOGECA Women's Committee, connected the dots: access to land, access to finance, and the role of women in farm succession are not three separate issues. They are one question about who gets to farm in Europe's next generation.

📜 The Stockholm Declaration is now on the table of Europe's decision-makers. At our Congress, we presented the Declaration directly to Commissioners Christophe Hansen and Jessika Roswall during frank and open discussions on the challenges facing European agriculture, and above all, farmers' deep concerns over the ongoing negotiations on the EU budget and the future #CAP. Commissioner Jessika Roswall underlined the fundamental role of agriculture in Europe's competitiveness: "Agriculture is the bedrock of European competitiveness. It's part of the fabric of Europe." She also highlighted the growing impact of soil degradation, droughts and extreme weather events, with recent estimates putting the economic cost of the 2026 droughts at €40–70 billion and counting. With Commissioner Christophe Hansen, the Copa and Cogeca Presidencies reiterated a clear message: despite his strong commitment to European farmers, the current proposals for the future EU budget and CAP risk undermining the resources, common character and predictability of European agricultural policy. And this at precisely the moment when farmers need greater stability and a clear long-term perspective. The #StockholmDeclaration has been delivered. Our message is clear. And as negotiations enter their decisive phase, we remain more vigilant and mobilised than ever. 📷Eva Dalin

How can European agriculture remain competitive and resilient in an increasingly turbulent world? This was the central question of this morning plenary session at the 12th Copa-Cogeca Congress. 🇸🇪 @PalleBorgstrom opened with the Swedish perspective, highlighting strong public support for domestic agriculture, with consumers willing to pay more for Swedish products, particularly when it comes to animal welfare. But with fewer farmers and increasingly difficult access to land, greater responsibilities are falling on fewer shoulders. 🇪🇺@LennartN_LRF, Cogeca President, broadened the picture to Europe: farmers are no longer facing one crisis at a time, but all of them at once. Extreme weather, poor harvests, rising costs and shrinking margins are putting the sector under unprecedented pressure. We cannot ask farmers to deliver more while making their businesses less viable. A strong CAP, thriving cooperatives and better opportunities for young farmers and women are essential to securing the sector's future. 🇮🇪 @martinheydonfg, Ireland's Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, echoed these concerns, stressing that the ongoing EU budget and CAP discussions are anything but abstract. The decisions taken today will determine whether farmers and rural communities can invest, produce and plan for the future with confidence. The message from Stockholm is clear: if Europe wants farmers tomorrow, it must give them the means to thrive today.

🇪🇺🇺🇸#FARMERSCONGRESS2026 provided a great opportunity to connect with our American colleagues from the @FarmBureau and discuss the challenges we face on both sides of the Atlantic. Many common issues and challenges, both in the short and long term: the overall agricultural economic outlook, climate-related concerns, rising input costs, particularly for machinery and fertilisers, as well as land prices, and the growing strategic importance of agriculture in an increasingly tense geopolitical context. 📨This is also why @COPACOGECA and @FarmBureau Presidents decided to send a joint letter to Presidents Trump and von der Leyen ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit, calling on our leaders to give particular attention to agriculture and food security aspects in their discussions 🚜

💡EU research promises solutions to agriculture. In the meantime, companies hold digital tools to simplify paperwork that consumes farmers' time. 2 sessions at the Congress are tackling the same question: does any of it actually reach the farm gate? 3⃣ Horizon Europe projects were showcased, with Copa Cogeca on the ground to make sure research serves farmers’ needs. @UmbertoDP, Director for Resilience, Innovation and Social Affairs, opened with the principle that should govern every euro of EU research money: innovation is value creation and only counts when it can be adopted creating benefits for farmers. Projects make the case in practice: @EUFarmBook is an AI tool which is pulling the practical outputs of EU-funded research into one findable, accessible, multilingual reference point; BALANCE is testing nature-positive farming systems that combine restoration with production, on the premise that biodiversity and farm profitability are not enemies to be traded off; And @eu4advice is running 4 Living Labs in Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Hungary, where producers, advisors, researchers and consumers co-create solutions in real-life conditions. The Special Workshop on digital labelling takes the same fight to the administrative end. Every farmer knows the real cost of a paper label: hours in the office that should be hours in the field. At the centre of the session is #AgriGuide, developed by @CropLifeEU together with Copa Cogeca and partner. @COPACOGECA Secretary General Elli Tsiforou sets the bar: digitalisation must deliver tangible simplification, not move the paperwork to a screen. 🌐Jelte Wiersma of @CEMAagri emphasised on interoperability, because a digital label that can't talk to the machinery already in use is just another silo. 🖇️What links the two sessions is one conviction: knowledge and tools are only worth having if they are accessible and efficient; and only if the farming and cooperative sectors are involved from day one, not invited to the closing conference. #AgriGuide #DigitalFarming #Simplification

At #FARMERSCONGRESS2026 this afternoon we explored how AI is coming to European farms. Max Schulman (@MTKry) opened the session with an honest framing: AI can sharpen decisions, optimise inputs, cut red tape and boost resilience. But uptake is uneven, due to factors including high costs, patchy infrastructure, skills gaps, and one thorny question: who owns the data? @PL_LOND, Head of Unit for Data Governance at @EUAgri, brought the Commission's answer-in-progress: a policy framework for agricultural data — access, sharing, control, ownership — designed so that farmers and cooperatives can benefit from AI without losing confidence or control over their own business decisions. ▶️AI must strengthen farm businesses and give them a competitive edge. That means practical value, interoperability, accessible technology, real skills, knowledge, trustworthy data governance and farmers in the driver's seat.

Fertilisers. Crop protection. Feed. Labour. 4⃣ bills that decide whether a farm is profitable. That was the reality check from Matei Titianu, President of LAPAR, from production costs that keep climbing, inputs that are harder to get, and regulation that too often ignores the economics of the farm gate. @CarolVdHeyden (@Boerenbond) brought practical solutions on how to reconcile environmental rules with farmers' need for effective, accessible tools. There is a need for a true reflection of current legislation that affect these facets of agri life. But what happens when alternatives simply aren't there? Science has answers: innovation and best practices can optimise inputs without sacrificing productivity, answered Stéphane Jézéquel from @Arvalisofficiel. On top of that, labour is the sector's silent crisis. For Billy Goodburn (@ICOS1894) skills and training are key in preparing farmers and employees for technology that doesn't wait. To someone who said "what if I train them and they leave? " he once answered " what if you don't train them, and they stays ? " Cost pressure and labour shortage are not separate problems. 🪙They are the two sides of the same coin: knife-edge economic balance of farming. Policy that treats them as side issues will keep missing the point. "A competitive European farm sector is a strategic necessity for food security, for rural areas, for Europe itself.” concluded Copa Vice-President @gormanifa

🇪🇺 The 12th Copa Cogeca Congress has opened in Stockholm, bringing together 4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ European farmers and cooperative leaders at a pivotal moment for the future of agriculture. 🚜 Christophe Hansen, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, set the scene: "I have recently heard many unacceptable comments about the CAP, especially that it is an outdated policy. It is quite the opposite. The CAP's long track record makes it a robust policy, fit for future challenges and strategic dependencies. Anyone who questions the added value of the #CAP is fighting the wrong battle." @masgiansanti, Copa President, brought his farmers' perspective on economic viability, food security and the policy conditions farmers need in order to keep and producing and feeding Europeans. @LennartN_LRF, Cogeca President, presented the cooperative perspective: farmer-owned cooperatives are the backbone of resilience, investment capacity, innovation and value creation across a robust agri-food chain. ⚠️ The supply chain cannot be taken for granted anymore, security and defence are high on the agenda. When discussing security, one should ask: can the EU continue to defend itself also means can Europe keep feeding itself? Preparing us for the future means building resilience and security not only in times of crisis. Our Presidents made their diagnosis clear: Europe’s last chance to rebuild its agriculture on solid ground is now. Is the European Union ready to write the prescription ? #FARMERSCONGRESS2026

🚨The @Ireland2026eu Presidency of the Council presented its negotiating box for the next long-term EU budget. For Europe’s farmers and agri-cooperatives, the message is brutally clear: the proposed cuts remain, while no credible safeguard has been offered to preserve the CAP’s historic structure, autonomy and common character. The EU is moving dangerously close to making a grave strategic mistake. 🔗Read full Press Release >>>>>>copa-cogeca.eu/press-release…

🗳️🇪🇺A strong signal for EU promotion policy! On Monday evening, @EP_Agriculture adopted a draft INI report on promotion policy, sending a clear signal of support for European farmers and agri-cooperatives. The report highlights the importance of maintaining an adequate budget for EU promotion policy. It also calls for all agricultural products, including red meat and wine, to be eligible for promotion programmes and treated fairly and equally. Now it’s up to the Member States: when voting on the amending letter to the 2027 draft budget, they must match this ambition and secure the funding that our promotion programmes need. @salv_de_meo

👏Today, European farmers confirmed @masgiansanti, Italian farmer and President of @Confagricoltura, as President of Copa, representing millions of farmers across the EU. His mandate will run for the next two years. At a critical moment for European agriculture, a strong and united voice will be essential to defend the competitiveness and resilience of European farming. "The decisions to be taken in the coming weeks will shape the lives of millions of farmers for years to come. After yet another challenging summer, Europe’s farmers are now looking for clear action, not more words. We will fight to defend a strong Common Agricultural Policy, secure an increased budget that keeps pace with inflation, advance the simplification agenda and ensure a coherent EU trade policy. The time to act is now!" reacted Massimiliano Giansanti. He will continue his Presidency together with Copa's six Vice-Presidents: Nikolaus Berlakovich 🇦🇹, Søren Søndergard 🇩🇰, @SanderFranck 🇫🇷, @PedroBarato_ 🇪🇸, Jan Doležal 🇨🇿 and @gormanifa 🇮🇪

👏Today, the Cogeca Praesidium confirmed @LennartN_LRF, arable farmer from Swedish organisation @LRFSverige, as President of Cogeca, representing more than 22,000 agricultural cooperatives across the EU. His mandate will run throughout 2027. At a decisive moment for European agriculture, with negotiations on the next #MFF and #CAP post-2027, continued geopolitical uncertainty, persistently high input costs and the impact of recent weather events, continuity and stability will be essential to build on what has already been achieved and prepare European agri-cooperatives for the challenges ahead. “This spirit of cooperation will be essential in the months ahead. These challenges require policies that strengthen, not weaken, the competitiveness and resilience of European agriculture, with strong agri-cooperatives at the centre” said Lennart Nilsson. He will continue to be supported by Cogeca’s six Vice-Presidents: @PolskaIzbaMleka 🇵🇱, @LPofferi 🇮🇹, Florentin Bercu 🇷🇴, Mickael Marcerou 🇫🇷, Christian Høegh-Andersen 🇩🇰 and Idalino Leão 🇵🇹

EU-Thailand 🇪🇺🇹🇭 Final round of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement is taking place this week in Bangkok. As negotiators work to bridge the remaining gaps, EU farmers and agri-cooperatives are following the latest round of talks closely 👀 The EU-Thailand FTA can bring opportunities, but the final outcome must be truly balanced and fully respect the sensitivities of European agriculture⚖️ 🐔 Poultry 🌱 sugar 🌾rice and 🌽🥔starch are among the sensitive sectors where additional market opening could add further pressure on EU producers already facing increasing competition and successive trade concessions and, in some cases, difficult production conditions for years! No agreement is negotiated in isolation. This FTA impact must be assessed against the cumulative effect of concessions already granted – or being negotiated – across the EU’s expanding network of trade agreements. The competitiveness and resilience of EU agriculture cannot be considered agreement by agreement. ➕Meaningful market access for European agri-food exports must be secured. Persistent SPS and non-tariff barriers need to be effectively addressed so that opportunities negotiated on paper translate into real access to the Thai market. At this crucial stage, the concerns highlighted in the recently published draft final Sustainability Impact Assessment, including regarding the impacts on sensitive agricultural sectors, production and labour conditions, are consistent with concerns Copa and Cogeca have repeatedly raised and should be duly reflected in the final negotiations. 🤝Trade openness must go hand in hand with fairness, reciprocity, and the long-term competitiveness of EU agriculture #EUThailand