The plan was reached after 8 months of consultation with 29 stakeholders, from farmers’ unions to industry representatives and environmental groups, to determine the concerns and goals of Europeans across the agricultural supply chain. The result, unveiled last week, includes a wide range of measures to revitalize EU farming, remove restrictive red tape, and make the bloc’s agricultural exports more competitive. 

The vision has four main goals: increasing farmers’ living conditions, making the agricultural sector resilient to global shocks and competition, creating “future proof” sustainable agriculture, and connecting the sector to the needs of the EU population and its rural areas. The plan centers innovation and technology as springboards for growth, introducing AI to analyse farming data and promoting the EU as a leader in bioeconomy through a detailed strategy to be published later this year. 

Supporting agriculture from the bottom up

Biopesticides, genome editing, and biotechnologies are all touted as ways for investment to have an immediate impact, increasing production and positioning the EU as a global leader in innovative farming. Excessive bureaucracy, which has long been blamed for a stagnating agri-food sector, is being reorganised, with more funding routed to agencies like the European Food Safety Authority to speed up certification processes. The plan promises “an unprecedented simplification effort” to make it easier for businesses to comply with EU standards and facilitate entry to the industry.

The plan also includes a range of sustainability initiatives meant to encourage agri-businesses to become more environmentally friendly without adding more regulation and further decreasing their margins; instead, environmental burdens will be more equally shared throughout the supply chain and farmers will receive more optional support from the EU to decrease their environmental impact. For example, the EU will set up an “On-farm Sustainability Compass,” a one-stop shop for all environmental reporting intended to streamline reporting and make it easier for agri-businesses to measure their environmental impact and improve in key areas. 

This focus on sustainability as supporting, not constraining, farmers comes as the EU’s sustainability measures are being increasingly blamed for the EU’s stalling economic growth. On Wednesday 26 February, the EU announced a “simplification omnibus” as industrial groups from France and Germany blamed excessive environmental regulations for complicating operations and hindering competitiveness. 

The changes include rolling back carbon reporting requirements to large firms, excluding 80% of firms originally affected by them, and softening the impact of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, a proposed measure to make firms liable for ESG breaches throughout their supply chains, will also be significantly altered after US complaints. That the EU’s Agriculture vision still includes ambitious sustainability goals is a testament to the EU’s commitment to climate action; however, it could point to a more pragmatic approach that supports companies to become sustainable instead of imposing more and more regulations. 

Trade and sustainability take the stage

The last important aspect of the plan, one which may attract international attention once in effect, is the EU’s proposed measures to increase domestic competitiveness and regulate imports. The Vision outlines measures to “be more assertive in promoting and defending strategically the exports of EU products” to decrease dependence on foreign countries and increase self-sufficiency. The EU’s trading partners will be able to benefit from trade facilitation measures, like prelisting – a way to pre-approve importers so they can skip border inspections – only if the partners extend similar measures to the EU. 

The Vision also pledges to strengthen “agri-food economic diplomacy” and ban imported products containing hazardous pesticides banned domestically, as well as potentially stop imports of banned pesticides and chemicals. In another blow to importers, the plan includes “a powerful strengthening of [imports] controls on the ground” in an effort to protect domestic production and stop dangerous or unfairly produced goods from entering the EU.

A dwindling crucial industry

Amidst the international trade chaos caused by recent conflicts and President Trump’s unpredictable tariff regime, global food chains are more fragile than ever – and the EU agriculture industry is rushing to protect itself. EU farming has struggled for years amidst high regulation, low margins, and cheap crops from abroad making exports uncompetitive: in 2025, only 12% of EU farmers are younger than 40, and few newcomers are joining their ranks. 

Politically, farming has been a hot-button issue throughout the EU: a core part of the region’s cultural identity, farmers are increasingly leaving the industry and being replaced by multinational corporations or crowded out altogether. Strengthening the European food supply has been identified as one of the critical goals for regional security, and will also be crucial to bringing a stagnating EU economy back on track: the EU’s agricultural industry generated over €900 billion in 2022, accounting for 15% of the EU’s total employment. 

On a global level, too, developments in the EU food supply chain will have a ripple effect in nearly every agricultural industry. The EU is the world’s single largest agri-food exporter, with a steadily growing trade surplus that reached €70 billion in 2023; developments in EU regulations, import controls, and export restrictions are set to be massively consequential for food supply and production everywhere. 

A pivotal step for the EU’s future

This vision represents a clear commitment to tackle those issues and strengthen the industry from the bottom up. However, some are unconvinced. Environmental groups have criticised the plan for not going far enough and ignoring the negative impact of meat consumption on the climate, instead excessively supporting livestock farmers. As the debate over the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy rages on, the Vision fails to clearly set a direction for the revamped policy, which many say should target newcomers and young farmers instead of being the more-or-less blanket subsidy system it is now. 

More crucially, the plan comes at a pivotal time for the EU, when the bloc is facing an existential crisis about its own security, independence, and long-term goals. As the US is moving closer to Russia in the Ukraine conflict resolution, the EU has once again proposed that Ukraine become a member of the bloc – both in a clear effort to distance itself from Trump’s foreign policy, and as a commitment to improving the bloc’s size and strength. The EU has also been working to become more independent, both from allies like the US, by increasing defense spending and moving closer to the UK, and from foes, as seen in the widely televised ceremony earlier this month where Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined the EU power grid and became independent of Russian electricity.

As German voters clearly showed last week, EU citizens want an EU that is strong, prosperous, and self-sufficient – and to get there, there is no better way than to go back to the basics of any economy: the food industry. “The Vision is our resolute response to the agri-food sector’s call for action—shaping a future that is competitive, resilient, fair and attractive for generations to come,” said Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms and leader of the team producing the vision. The strategies set out in the plan are ambitious, and could be crucial to turning the EU’s troubled agricultural sector around – it just remains to be seen whether the EU bureaucracy can turn these lofty ideas into action.