Lleida: CAP public support has reached a record level, according to a Eurobarometer survey published by the European Commission on 22 September 2026, and in the orchards and irrigated cereal plains of western Catalonia the finding lands after a summer that tested European farming hard. Heatwaves, drought and wildfires damaged crops and livestock across southern Europe, and on 1 September the Commission convened the main EU farm organisations to take stock of the damage.
The survey shows how strongly Europeans still identify with agriculture. Ninety-five percent of respondents said farming and rural areas are important for the future of Europe, and 93 percent said ensuring a stable food supply within the EU is crucial. Awareness of the Common Agricultural Policy reached 78 percent, the highest level recorded since 2007, and 70 percent agreed that the CAP benefits all Europeans and not only farmers.
Respondents also gave the policy good marks on delivery. Eighty-one percent said the EU, through the CAP, is fulfilling its role in securing a stable supply of food at all times. Around seven in ten said it contributes to the sustainable management of natural resources, at 72 percent, and to the development of research and digital solutions for the agriculture and food sectors, at 71 percent. For a policy that absorbs roughly a third of the EU budget and has been the target of repeated farmer protests since 2024, those numbers offer the Commission a political cushion.
The timing is not accidental. The debate over the next Multiannual Financial Framework, which begins in 2028, is entering its decisive phase, and the Commission’s proposal to fold CAP funding into single national and regional partnership plans has alarmed farm unions and several agriculture ministers, who fear the loss of a ring-fenced budget. Evidence of broad CAP public support strengthens the hand of those in the European Parliament and the Council who want dedicated farm spending protected in the final deal.
The Commission is also trying to shift the conversation towards innovation. On 8 September it launched an agri-food innovation strategy intended to speed the uptake of new technologies, from precision irrigation to drought-tolerant crop varieties, and the AgRI 2040 conference on future-proofing European agri-food through research runs on 24 and 25 September. For growers around Lleida, where access to water from the Segre and the Canal d’Urgell determines whether a harvest succeeds, research on water efficiency is not an abstraction but a condition of staying in business.
Farm organisations will read the survey as a mandate rather than a compliment. They argue that the public’s attachment to food security must translate into income support that keeps pace with rising input costs, affordable insurance against climate shocks, and fewer administrative burdens. Environmental groups will point out that the same respondents also expect the CAP to protect natural resources, a goal that recurrent simplification packages have diluted.
The survey cannot settle that tension, but it does frame the coming budget negotiation. With CAP public support at its highest level in almost two decades, any government seeking deep cuts to farm spending will be arguing against a clear majority of its own voters.
