National Networks’ trends: 2023 vs 2024
Every year, the Common Network Statistics report captures the activities and achievements of the National Networks. Here's a look at how their activities have evolved from 2023 to 2024.
The Common Network Statistics (CNS) is an annual exercise collecting basic qualitative and quantitative information on the activities and achievements of the Member States’ National Networks (NNs) across the EU.
The EU CAP Network is in charge of the regular collection of data from the 28 NNs and using it to create the reports.
The aim of this annual exercise is to deliver a comparative analysis over time, enabling the EU CAP Network to identify emerging trends and track the progress of NNs’ activities.
Cristina Rascón, Networking coordinator at the EU CAP Network – CAP Implementation Contact Point, explains: “The CNS is a very relevant exercise, since it is the only one that analyses NNs activities across the EU. The latest CNS report (based on 2024 data) has a new format, focusing on the analytical side and providing explanations to the different sets of data from the NNs”.
Results and insights from the CNS reports are analysed in depth by the EU CAP Network team working on the CAP implementation, and shared publicly via the EU CAP Network website. Key insights are shared with the NNs, in particular through NN meetings.
CAP-funded projects elaborated by National Networks in 2024
Same indicators, new style
In 2023, the EU CAP Network, with the support of the NNs, introduced a new set of indicators for the CNS – in addition to the previous ones - to make the data collection process more efficient. Maintaining consistent indicators is crucial to ensure reliable year-on-year comparisons; therefore, most of the indicators remained the same, but the presentation has evolved.
The 2024 CNS report places greater emphasis on explaining the main trends and activities of NNs, helping readers gain a clearer understanding of how the Networks operate. This approach provides a comprehensive view of what the data in the graphs actually represents, and offers a comparison between the data recorded in 2023 and 2024, demonstrating the evolution of certain activities.
Thematic focus of events
In 2024, the 28 NNs organised a total of 3 341 events. The CNS report provides detailed data broken down by country, event category, type, format, networking focus, and thematic focus. It also offers explanations of the key differences observed between 2023 and 2024, and some trends.
For example, there was a significant increase in events related to topics under the CAP Specific Objective (SO) 8: Rural Areas, which increased overall by 113%. Indeed, SO8 was the category in which the most events were organised in 2024 and saw the biggest increase in events from 2023, with the highest absolute numbers recorded by Hungary (493), Denmark (400), and Latvia (124). Particularly notable are the sharp increases in Latvia (up by 218%) and Hungary (up by a remarkable 9 760%, from 5 events in 2023 to 493 events in 2024).
Evolution in communications
NNs report data on their website visits, social media followers, online forums and communication outputs. The comparison between data from 2023 and 2024 reveals an increasing role for social media as a key communication tool.
All the NNs’ social media channels combined had 290 585 followers at the end of 2024, a 20% increase from the 241 459 followers reported in 2023.
The social media channels with the most followers, in order of audience size, are Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and YouTube.
Main strategic priorities
23 NNs reported 154 active thematic groups during 2024, more than twice the number reported in 2023 (when 18 NNs reported 74 active thematic groups).
The NNs also provided details on the topics addressed in their thematic work, with the five most popular topics being:
- LEADER
- Environmental topics, including the CAP's green architecture
- EIP-AGRI and AKIS
- Agri-food value chain, focusing on producer organisations, agriculture and local food chains (elements to face the economic vulnerability of farming)
- Rural development
- Learn more about the topics addressed by the EU CAP Network's Thematic Groups
Networking highlights and #ProudOfNetworking
- NNs were also asked to mention their top three networking achievements of 2024, highlighting the moments they are most proud of. The responses revealed a rich mix of activities, from conferences and seminars to study visits and networking meetings, demonstrating the diversity and impact of networking across the EU.
- To give these achievements greater visibility, in summer 2025, the EU CAP Network organised the second edition of the social media campaign #ProudOfNetworking. The campaign celebrates the most impactful networking activities of the NNs, sharing them with a wider audience and showcasing the power of collaboration for advancing agriculture and rural development.
What’s next?
The collection of the CNS 2025 data is already underway, and a new report is expected to be published in autumn 2026 – you will then find it together with previous editions in our publications library.
However, the CNS is not the only analytical work that we do on NNs and their activities. We are now drafting a mapping report on the structure of NNs, their governance bodies, consultation processes, thematic priorities, and basically everything there is to know about NNs. When complete, we will share the outcomes of this study with you, so stay tuned and follow the EU CAP Networks newsletter for more updates.
Summary reports: comparing insights
The EU CAP Network publishes every year a summary report of the data collected through the CNS:
