Paving the way to delivering CAP objectives – Simplification

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a partnership between society and agriculture, aiming to ensure a stable food supply while safeguarding farmers’ incomes, protecting the environment and keeping rural areas vibrant.

Integrating varied and potentially contradictory economic, social and environmental interests is challenging for policymakers and public administrations. The additional need to protect public finances can result in rules that create a heavy administrative burden, sometimes constraining businesses, innovation, productivity and growth. This is highlighted in the EU CAP Network's 'Study on simplification and administrative burden for farmers and other beneficiaries under the CAP'.

The EU Simplification strategy, with its horizontal approach, aims to address the underlying causes of overregulation, red tape and a ‘fear of audit’ without undermining policy objectives. Simple principles in new and existing legislation, along with cross-cutting, overarching policies and processes, aim to reduce administrative burden across all sectors. In addition, streamlined regulations facilitate access to EU funds.

The Omnibus III Regulation, which simplifies the CAP, supports farmers and enhances competitiveness, was adopted in December 2025 and entered into force on 1 January 2026. Among other benefits, the legislation should simplify administration by, for example, streamlining the approval process and leading to a more efficient integrated administration and control system (IACS) quality assessments and conditionality controls. In addition, simplifications allow for better consideration of specific situations of farmers like organic farmers who would, by definition, comply with selected good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAEC), which reduces the workload for them and for public administration. Additional flexibility has also been added regarding the implementation of GAEC, the possibility of temporary derogation and the definition of permanent grassland. Another major improvement concerns competitiveness: the package extends simplified payments for small farmers and makes it easier for Member States to use tools such as Simplified Cost Options (SCOs).

To ensure simpler processes are effective, coordination within and between Member States as well as with the Commission and diverse stakeholders is essential. Coordination leads to more legal certainty and less administrative burden. It also encourages co-creation and co-ownership from the outset, helping overcome typical barriers to implementing changes. Such coordination is more effective when the objective is clear. Similar to coordination, knowledge sharing, as well as support, training and communication at all levels, from local to European, can highlight alternative solutions and spread best practices.

More regionalised countries, such as Spain and Italy, have coordination bodies that also enable timely information exchange and more unified implementation.

Digital transformation is a priority for the EU. For the CAP, Member States can simplify and clarify application procedures through digitalisation. Several Member States moved from paper to digital application procedures. An example is the Estonian Portal of Agricultural Registers, where farmers submit documents just once. They can also check their registry data and apply for support. The resultant database facilitates detailed reporting on applicants, grants, conditions, business plans, trends and dynamics, easing the workload for public administration.

Another highly practical example is BiedjaCam, a mobile app developed by the Maltese Agricultural and Rural Paying Agency (ARPA). This enables farmers to manage their land, equipment, and crops, as well as stay updated on agricultural developments linked to the CAP. They can also track crop plans, claim for storm damage with geotagged photos and communicate directly with ARPA, checking payments or funding status at the click of a button. “Our goal is to ensure that simplification benefits everyone — from farmers and other CAP actors to administrators,” highlighted the Managing Authority for the CAP in Malta.

As noted above, the Omnibus Regulation III will enable Member States to simplify processes and governance through financial tools.

The feasibility of potential financial tools should be reviewed against the anticipated benefits. An assessment could consider eligible actions, the amounts involved, standards and indicators, data availability and timing, as well as workload, to clarify that longer-term benefits justify the initial investment.

Among the options for financing rural development projects recommended by the European Court of Auditors are Simplified Cost Options (SCOs). These are methods for funding projects that use preset amounts (lump sums, unit costs, flat rates, etc.) rather than tracking actual expenditures. This has the potential to drastically reduce administration for beneficiaries, speed up payments, and shift the focus to project results rather than paperwork; however, it requires considerable capacity and input from the national administrations in setting up SCOs. It is important to choose the appropriate SCO; for example, other EU Cohesion Funds have found that they are especially efficient for smaller projects with complex cost structures. The European Social Fund (ESF) has been using SCOs since the 2007-2013 period.

Managing Authorities looking to establish an SCO under the CAP can review the European Commission’s Guidelines on the use of SCOs in connection with the Common Provisions Regulation and Simplified Cost Options – A practitioner’s manual by the European Social Fund Plus Transnational Cooperation Platform.

Many examples of simplification have been highlighted by the Thematic Group (TG) on Effective Approaches for Simplification within the CAP. The TG has been a welcome forum for Member State representatives and stakeholders to share experiences and solutions. The briefing on key areas for CAP simplification with practical ideas and new examples for solutions includes contributions from 40 TG members from 22 Member States and offers examples of initiatives that can significantly reduce administrative burden for beneficiaries and administrations, while maintaining the integrity and objectives of the policy.

The EU CAP Network Workshop on the Use of Simplified Cost Options in the CAP on 20 November 2025 shared examples of tested and new models to use SCOs and discussed ways to encourage their use across Member States. Areas of action include making SCO methodologies audit-proof, producing CAP-specific guidance, raising awareness, enhancing technical knowledge of specific SCO types, and working on the design and implementation of SCOs. The event offers ideas for possible solutions and the conversation will continue, also via the work of the EU CAP Network.