The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have reached an agreement on the EU budget for 2023 as proposed by the European Commission. The proposal concerns commitments of €186 billion and payments of €168.7 billion. This is €1 billion more than the draft budget announced in June.
Nearly a third, €54.7 billion, is for the Common Agricultural Policy and the European Maritime, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Fund to "strengthen the resilience of the agri-food and fisheries sectors and to provide the necessary scope for crisis management.”
Agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowskihe in an interview with the EU Commission news service Euractiv had earlier said that the CAP budget was not sufficient to ensure food security which has been demonstrated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in the Ukraine. He also said the current CAP was spread too thinly and future payments should be directed at farmers and food production.
Since April this year farmers in the EU have received an additional €500 million from the EU crisis fund due to the effects of the Ukraine war. Commissioner Wojciechowskihe has said this is likely to happen again next year.
By contrast, the UK Government's funding for Welsh agriculture has been cut significantly since the UK left the EU CAP, and by 2025 Welsh agriculture and rural development will have received around £250 million less than would have been the case had the 2019 CAP budget been fixed. Further concerns exist that while many in the EU share Commissioner Wojciechowski's view, many politicians in the UK would like to see agricultural funding cut further at a time of extreme concerns about global food security.