Thematic Group on Unlocking the Potential of Cooperation
This Thematic Group (TG) considered how best to unlock the potential of cooperation in the CAP to increase business competitiveness, resilience and growth, particularly for small farmers. The TG also reflected on the effectiveness of current CAP interventions/frameworks for supporting cooperation.
Agriculture continues to face significant challenges; such challenges are particularly acute for smaller farms, new/young farmers and farmers in economically disadvantaged or geographically challenging regions. Such businesses are particularly vulnerable to economic and environmental or climate related shocks.
Establishing cooperation between farmers enables them to: gain market insights and improve decision-making with their peers; share knowledge, pool resources such as access to new technology, information and training; improve their access to risk management tools; and ultimately help their businesses to be competitive and resilient with reduced risks and increased profitability.
CAP Strategic Plans have the potential to support any form of cooperation actions deemed necessary, the key question is understanding how Member States are currently promoting or could better foster cooperation to support business incomes and business resilience across the different CAP interventions.
The background briefing provides further context, a list of TG members is also available.
Objectives
- Explore the success factors for unlocking the potential of cooperation in the CAP to increase business competitiveness, resilience and growth, particularly for small farmers.
- Consider how farm-based businesses are capitalising on the possibilities to overcome the challenges they face through co-operation.
- Reflect on the effectiveness of current CAP interventions/frameworks for supporting cooperation, consider how such approaches are implemented, how they can be enhanced, or new ones developed.
Activities
The first meeting (online, 25 September 2025) explored how farm-based businesses are overcoming the challenges they face through co-operation. The second meeting (Brussels, 11 December 2025) continued considering the effectiveness of current CAP, with much of the session devoted to the development of actions for unlocking the potential of cooperation. Highlights reports and presentations for both TG meetings are available on the event pages.
TG members also led in-between meetings centred on policy frameworks, finance and the supporting landscape where they exchanged their ideas for unlocking the potential of cooperation.
Key findings
TG members identified key areas for action to unlock the potential of co-operation and enable farmers with limited resources to engage in cooperation activities, these were:
- Solutions to financing cooperation initiatives and associated requirements
- Develop a pipeline for cooperation, developing and supporting leadership
- Cooperation ‘owned and operated’ through collective action by consumers and farmers
- Developing a network of Producer Organisations (POs) at EU level, potentially as a Horizon Europe Project
- Mechanisms required to drive business growth, improve environmental standards and promote terroir through cooperation
- Role of advisors, innovation support services, and others, in promoting, stimulating, and supporting cooperation
- Provision of incentives to farmers to enable them to cooperate
- Ensuring the cooperation established by partnerships through EIP Operational Groups (OGs) endures beyond the lifetime of the EIP funding
- Reducing the burden of financial risk to farmers through cooperation
All the areas discussed were fed into a member-led output that sets out how the potential of cooperation can be realised across the supporting pipeline. This document, as well as a compendium of examples from TG members, will be soon available on this page.
Scroll down this page to find all the outputs of this Thematic Group and relevant resources related to this topic.
Learn more
You can find other useful resources about this theme in our Publications section and in our Good Practice database.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at implementation@eucapnetwork.eu.
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