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Παρασκευή 5 Σεπτεμβρίου 2025

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,update

 

 
● Council of the EU
 
03/09/2025 19:53 | Press release |

Simplification: Council agrees position on simplifying the common agricultural policy (CAP)

 

Member states’ representatives agreed today the Council’s position on simplifying provisions related to the common agricultural policy (CAP). The aim is to boost the competitiveness of European agriculture by reducing red tape, supporting farmers, including new and young farmers, encouraging innovation and boosting productivity.

The proposal forms the so-called ‘Omnibus III’ package adopted by the Commission on 14 May 2025 to simplify EU legislation in the field of agriculture. The package contains amendments to two of the three basic legislative acts establishing rules for CAP, namely the strategic plan regulation (SPR) and the ‘horizontal’ regulation. In view of its significant implications, the Council has treated this initiative with utmost priority aiming to provide EU farmers and national administrations with the necessary legal certainty as regards their obligations.

The proposed simplification measures could lead to significant reductions in administrative costs for both farmers and national administrations. According to the Commission’s assessment, this simplification could lead to annual savings of up to €1.6 billion for farmers and more than €200 million for member states’ administrations.

The Council’s position maintains the general thrust of the Commission proposal in support of the following objectives:

  • easing the administrative burden for farmers and administrations and reducing controls
  • increasing the payments to small farmers and simplifying the rules on conditionality, in particular for organic farms
  • reducing the on-the-spot checks and deleting of the annual performance clearance

The amendment of the agricultural reserve would limit demands for the use of this fund but corresponding new types of crisis payments in the SPR should, on balance, improve funding of farmers in times of crises. These proposed new types have now been deferred to the wider CAP revision.

Moreover, the Council’s mandate improves the following elements of the Commission proposal:

  • gives flexibility to member states to decide to what extent partially organic farms could be considered to fulfil certain environmental standards, the so-called GAECs (good agricultural and environmental conditions)
  • improves the possibility for farmers to benefit from risk management tools
  • increases the percentage rate for advanced direct payments, improving the possibility for member states to assist farmers hit, for example, by natural disasters

Next steps

The Presidency stands ready to negotiate with the European Parliament, once the latter reaches its own negotiating position, to reach a final agreement on this file.

Background

The simplification package “Omnibus III” on agriculture is part of a broader political objective of enhancing EU competitiveness, by reducing businesses’ administrative burden and creating more favourable conditions for them to operate in the EU.  This simplification drive is conducted in response to the impetus from the European Council (March 2023 Conclusions, 2024-2029 Strategic Agenda) that called for simplifying the general regulatory environment and reducing the administrative burden.

On 26 February 2025, as a follow-up to EU Leaders’ call, the Commission put forward the first two Omnibus packages with the aim of simplifying the existing legislation in the field of sustainability reporting and certain EU investment programmes. On 20 March 2025, the European Council in its conclusions urged the co-legislators to take work forward on the Omnibus simplification packages as a matter of priority and with a high level of ambition.

 

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● European Council
 
03/09/2025 15:10 | Statements and remarks |

Press remarks by President António Costa following the meeting with the Federal Chancellor of Austria, Christian Stocker

 

First of all, I would like to thank Chancellor Christian Stocker for this warm welcome during my visit to Vienna. This tour des capitales is a very important moment for me.

First, because the European institutions must be close to the different member states. Secondly, because we need to engage with the different leaders. The Union is a union of nations, and all the voices matter. We need to take into account all the different leaderships and national positions to build unity among the 27 member states. 
 
Austria is a very important member of our Union, always very committed - not only to protect their own interests, such as those of Austrian farmers, to protect your borders, and manage migration - but also very engaged in our common challenges: competitiveness, security and defence in Europe, and also promoting the enlargement of the European Union to new member states. 
 
And I want to commend, first of all, Austria on the way that you manage your specific constitutional neutrality while fully engaging in European Security and Defence, and your clear support to Ukraine. 
 
Secondly, we are fully committed to working with you to protect our borders and to manage collectively migration.

But we also work together for our main priorities: boost competitiveness, strengthen our single market, promoting trade and promoting innovation. This is a key issue to improve our competitiveness.
 
Allow me to use this moment to commend the European Commission for approving today the final version of the Mercosur agreement, a new version, who solved many of the previous issues we identified. This agreement will be a great opportunity to boost our competitiveness and open our markets to new products and services.
 
This is very important for a country like Austria, which already has a trade surplus up to €1 billion with Mercosur countries. Now, with this new Mercosur agreement, I think it is good news for Austria, as it can boost your exports to a very important market. 
 
Finally, as you said, Christian, the next MFF is a great opportunity for all of us. We need a new MFF with a purpose, one that is specifically targeted to support our main policy priorities: competitiveness and security. 
 
And we will certainly focus our work on this in the coming months, counting on your support to deliver on these issues.

 

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● European Council
 
05/09/2025 12:08 | Press release |

António Costa's 'Tour des Capitales': preview for week 2

 

The President of the European Council, António Costa, is visiting EU leaders in their member states in the first three weeks of September.

This 'Tour des Capitales' allows President Costa to gather views from the heads of state or government about the EU’s agenda and to prepare the ground for upcoming European Council meetings and international summits.

In his meetings with leaders, President Costa will discuss their political priorities as well as working methods of the European Council.

Schedule for week 2

During the second week of his tour, President Costa will meet the Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo, in Helsinki on 8 September. On the same day, he will hold meetings with the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, in Stockholm and the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kristen Michal, in Tallinn.
 
On 9 September, he will meet the Prime Minister of Latvia, Evika Siliņa, in Riga, as well as President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda in Vilnius and Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk in Warsaw.
 
On 10 September, he will be in Budapest for a meeting with the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and in Berlin for a meeting with German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
 
The week will end with meetings with the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, in Bratislava and with Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, in Madrid on 11 September.
 
The details of the following week will be announced on Friday 12 September.

Background

The President will visit most EU countries between 1 and 19 September.

 

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● European Council
 
05/09/2025 12:30 | Statements and remarks |

Press remarks by President António Costa following the meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

Dear President Zelenskyy, dear Volodymyr.

This is my third visit to Ukraine in less than a year, but my very first time in Western Ukraine, a region bordering the European Union. That means and that proves that we are so close that in the future this region will be not anymore in the borders of the European Union, but it is a part of the European Union, because Ukraine will be a member, a full membership of the European Union.

We are here to participate in the congress of regional authorities.

So please let me start by paying tribute to Ukrainian local communities. You are showing incredible resilience in the face of this awful war, and you are a true inspiration for us all.

Europe has stood firmly with Ukraine against Russia's war of aggression since day 1, being a reliable and predictable partner.

Together with our member states, the European Union is the largest contributor of any global donor.

We are supporting Ukraine on defence, on economy, on energy grid, and institutions.

The Ukrainian people, dear Volodymyr, have shown to the world the extraordinary courage when facing the Russian aggression. And you are fighting for a just and lasting peace. And this is our common goal: to achieve a just and lasting in peace in Ukraine.

I hope through the related to the renewed diplomatic efforts over the summer and the meeting in Alaska.

And Ukraine, and you personally, dear Volodymyr, and the European Union member states and all members of the Coalition of Willing has been supporting President Trump's efforts to open peace negotiations.

You accepted President Trump proposal for peace negotiations. We are preparing security guarantees to ensure a just and lasting peace when peace comes.

And we are fully committed to providing strong security guarantees to help preventing future attacks.

Yesterday, in Paris, 26 countries plus the European Union committed to joint forces on offer strong security guarantees to Ukraine through air, land, sea and the regeneration of Ukraine's forces.

Yesterday, we demonstrated that the Coalition is not only willing, but it is able to deliver. In the nutshell – we are ready for the day after. But for that day to come, we must push Putin to the negotiating table.

And however, Russian bombs continue to hit Ukrainian cities, killing people, killing children, destroying cities and causing enormous suffering.

Only more pressure can change this course and we are ready to do more. We are working with the United States and other like-minded partners to increase our pressure through further sanctions, direct sanctions and secondary sanctions.

More economic measures to push Russia to stop this war, to stop killing people, to stop destroying Ukraine. The work has already started in Brussels on the new sanctions package, and a European team is travelling to Washington DC to work with our American friends.

And we are working together with you, with Ukrainian people. To own our common future.

Supporting Ukraine's reconstruction and its European Union’s accession path. It is clear that Ukraine's European Union full membership is not only the best security guarantees, it is also the most effective path for prosperity and for the best future for Ukrainian people.

I want to stress here today how impressed we are with the reforms you have carried out with the war in your soil.

This work must continue, and we are there to support you.

We are supporting you in the war when it is continuous. We will support you in your peace efforts in future peace negotiations and most important in our shared future as Ukrainian full membership of the European Union.

Thank you, Dear Volodymyr, and Glory Ukraine.

 

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