Numerous regional ministers and producers of geographical indications, members of AREPO, gathered for their second annual General Assembly in Barcelona, Catalunya, the World Region of Gastronomy 2025.
As European institutions prepare for negotiations on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), AREPO members expressed strong concerns about proposals marked by a significant budget reduction and an architecture that is difficult to interpret.
AREPO aims to engage in a constructive dialogue with European institutions to understand the motivations behind these announcements and to propose concrete ways to improve them. The European Commission presents the creation of a single fund and a new structure, replacing the two traditional CAP pillars, as a way to simplify the policy. However, AREPO members fear that this may ultimately lead to cost-cutting and dilution of resources, loss of cohesion, and a weakening of the common nature of agricultural policy.
Since the origins of the European Union, agriculture has represented one of the pillars of European construction and cohesion. A strong CAP is essential to preserve this role and ensure a balanced and sustainable development model for all territories.
César Saldaña, President of AREPO’s College of Producers, emphasized “the need for a CAP tailored to farmers’ needs with adequate financial resources. The current proposals do not introduce any measures addressing the specific needs of the geographical indications system. Producer organizations remain excluded from direct aid, and no new instruments for the valorization or development of GIs are foreseen.”
AREPO President Alessandro Beduschi also reminded that “the CAP is the guarantor of food sovereignty. We share with the European Commission the priorities of generational renewal in agriculture, adaptation to climate change, and the development of research. And concerning AREPO, we are fully aware of the need to ensure the sustainability of geographical indications. This cannot be achieved within a framework of a weakened CAP, reduced funding, and diminished clarity. On this matter, the discussion cannot be merely an accounting one.” AREPO advocates for a CAP based on two pillars, not out of tradition, but because they have proven their effectiveness, and reaffirms the need for a new, more innovative yet coherent Common Agricultural Policy, capable of meeting today’s challenges for European agriculture and preserving the European Union’s food sovereignty.
