Assessing CAP contribution to farmers’ position in the food supply chain
This Thematic Working Group aims to develop practical guidance to help Managing Authorities and/or evaluators assess whether the position of farmers in the food supply chain has improved as a result of the CAP.
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) aims to ensure a fair standard of living for farmers, per Article 39(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. One of its key goals is to improve farmers’ role in the food supply chain (Specific Objective 3 (SO3) of the CAP). This means encouraging cooperation, promoting shorter supply chains and clearer market information. One way to do so is for farmers to join Producer Organisations (POs) that let them work together to lower costs, match supply to demand and get better prices.
This Thematic Working Group will review how well these efforts are working and will build on insights from the report ‘Assessment of sectoral support within the CAP’.
The work undertaken will provide an evaluation framework and analytical approach to help Member States assess progress towards SO3, fulfilling the legal evaluation requirements of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation. The two key dimensions that will be analysed are:
- CAP Strategic Plans' contributions – This involves examining the effectiveness of the CAP Strategic Plan toward SO3.
- The CAP's overall impact – This analysis of the internal coherence and cumulative impact focuses on the contribution of various CAP instruments, individually and collectively, toward SO3.
Objectives
The main objectives of this Thematic Working Group are to:
- Define the concepts associated with the farmer’s position in the food chain, including a description of the supply chain.
- Suggest a practical method to assess the extent to which the CAP Strategic Plans promoted a better position of the farmer in the value chain.
- Develop a practical approach to assess the CAP’s overall impact on the farmers' position, by considering the internal coherence and cumulative impact of the CAP instruments.
- Clarify what data are needed for the application of the recommended approaches, while minimising the burden associated with data collection.
Working process
This Thematic Working Group (TWG) will run from March to November 2025 and is structured as follows:
- Working Package 1 – Launching TWG 11, including preparatory activities (e.g. outlining legal requirements, defining key terms and detailing the CAP framework, such as CSP interventions and CMO instruments), as well as organising the kick-off meeting.
- Working Package 2 – Coordination of content development, such as developing the draft guidelines document, culminating with a sounding board consultation in late 2025.
- Working Package 3 – Quality control and finalisation of the guidance document.
The outcome of the TWG will be a guidance document, which will present a range of qualitative and quantitative tools.
Organisation
Participation in this TWG is by invitation only, and members of the group include evaluation experts, Commission staff and, potentially, representatives of Member States.
As part of the TWG, a sounding board consultation will be organised to provide written feedback on the draft version of the guidelines. Participants may include Member State representatives in charge of evaluating CAP Strategic Plans, Paying Agency representatives, evaluators and other relevant experts.
For any questions, please contact the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP at evaluation@eucapnetwork.eu.