In December 2025 and March 2026, the ENFASYS team at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin organised two online expert workshops focusing on policy design for sustainable farming transitions.
The workshops brought together experts in EU food and agricultural policy to discuss ten policy design principles developed through ENFASYS policy co-design processes with farmers and stakeholders across ten European case studies. The aim was to assess the relevance of these principles in the context of ongoing CAP post-2027 reform discussions.
The discussions generated several important insights:
- Although sustainability is framed as a key objective, the current CAP post-2027 proposals provide limited mechanisms to effectively support it. Participants noted weaker environmental ambition compared to the current CAP, due to ring-fencing of area-based payments and weakened conditionality.
- The proposed single fund structure and National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) introduce new opportunities for integrating agricultural policy into broader national transformation agendas.
However, their effectiveness will depend largely on Member State implementation and political commitment.
- A broader food systems perspective-present in earlier policy discussions such as the Strategic Dialogue-has become less prominent. Demand-side measures, food environments, and participatory approaches have largely disappeared from the proposals.
The results of these discussions will be consolidated into a policy brief to be presented at the joint ENFASYS and VISIONARY final conference in Brussels on 16 June 2026.
The Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin team would like to thank all workshop participants for their valuable contributions.
For further information, please contact us.
