Kildare: EU agriculture ministers will return to the post-2027 CAP at the end of October, and the Irish Presidency wants them to reach a partial general approach at that meeting. The Council has scheduled the next Agriculture and Fisheries meeting for 26 and 27 October 2026. The target follows a discussion on 28 September that Irish Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon said brought the Council another step closer to a policy fit for the future.

A partial general approach lets the Council settle its position on part of a legislative file before the whole text is ready. For the post-2027 CAP it would give the presidency a mandate for talks with Parliament, and it would signal to farmers and national administrations which rules are likely to survive. The Irish Presidency has said it will keep working to deliver such an agreement in October.

The September discussion on the post-2027 CAP revealed broad support for the direction of travel. Ministers welcomed the balance between common EU rules and national flexibility that the draft strikes. At the same time, they asked for simpler rules that reduce the administrative burden on farmers and on national administrations, a request that has accompanied every reform of the common agricultural policy.

Money is the harder subject. Ministers called for more flexibility on the degressivity of direct payments and on capping, which are the mechanisms that reduce payments to the largest holdings. According to the Council, those questions are being addressed in the negotiating box for the next Multiannual Financial Framework. The post-2027 CAP therefore depends on a budget deal that has not been reached, and ministers cannot fully settle payment rules until it is.

The same meeting took stock of agricultural markets, though the Council did not publish details. Ministers also discussed the challenges facing European farming as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Ukraine’s agriculture minister, Taras Vysotskyi, attended the first part of that discussion, which underlines how closely Kyiv’s future place in the single market is tied to farm policy.

A working lunch covered the fertiliser action plan. Input costs have worried farmers across the Union, and the plan addresses supply and prices for a product on which crop yields depend. The link between that plan and the post-2027 CAP is practical: a reform that promises simplification means little to a grower who cannot afford fertiliser.

Farm organisations will watch the October meeting closely. They want predictable income support, fewer reporting duties and protection against sudden cuts, while environmental groups want the reform to keep meaningful green conditions. Governments differ on all three issues, so the presidency must find language that a qualified majority can accept.

If ministers reach a partial general approach, the post-2027 CAP moves into a more concrete phase, and Parliament will have a counterpart text to negotiate against. If they fail, the file slips towards the next presidency, and farmers will wait longer to learn what support they can expect after 2027.