99 million euros to help farmers in crisis – Poland left out?

The European Commission in February 2025 announced the allocation of 98.6 million euros from the agricultural reserve to help farmers in Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia and Hungary. The support is intended to help farmers in these five countries who have experienced losses in agricultural production and consequent loss of income due to disasters resulting from adverse climatic events and natural disasters since spring 2024.

With the support granted, farmers will be able to partially compensate for their production and income losses. The initiative taken, the EC communiqué stresses, demonstrates the European Union’s solidarity with those affected, and may be supplemented by additional support – up to 200 percent. – from national funds.

Aid to farmers – general context

Agricultural production, because it depends on a number of factors, such as natural resources, climatic conditions and market changes, is fraught with risk. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to be prepared to respond to climate-related risks and crisis management, while ensuring that actions are swift and targeted.

Increasingly observed adverse weather conditions, serious market imbalances or the spread of animal diseases and agrophages can lead to crop losses or other market disruptions.

As reported by the EC, it is aware of the occurrence of adverse weather events that wreaked havoc across the EU in 2024. Adverse climatic conditions also affected Poland in 2024. However, according to the EC, the most severe cataclysmic events occurred in five member states, namely Croatia and Spain, as well as Cyprus, Latvia and Hungary.

Climatic conditions in targeted countries

Farmers in countries to which the EC is directing additional support from the agricultural reserve have experienced such adverse climatic conditions as 2024:

• Croatia – extreme heat and drought;
• Cyprus – shortage of rainfall and high temperatures;
• Spain – Rain deficit, drought, severe storms, extreme heat and flooding in the Valencia region;
• Latvia – record low winter temperatures, spring frosts and torrential summer rainfall;
• Hungary – extreme heat and drought.

Farmers in the aforementioned countries experienced significant damage and suffered losses in such sectors/markets as:

• Cyprus – grains, olives and fruits and vegetables;
• Spain – fruits and vegetables, wines, olives and livestock;
• Latvia – grains, rapeseed, fruits and vegetables, mainly potatoes;
• Hungary and Croatia – corn, sunflowers, soybeans, sugar beets, fruits, potatoes and wine production.

Agricultural reserve under the Common Agricultural Policy

The 2023-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), effective January 1, 2023, established an agricultural reserve with an annual allocation of at least 450 million euros to counter market disruptions or extraordinary events affecting production. Under current rules, the EC must report to the European Parliament and the Council every three years on the allocation of emergency funds.

Nevertheless, due to the increasing frequency of adverse climatic events, the EC stresses the need to strengthen risk management tools and encourage their wider use across the EU. The Commission is also encouraging, in the medium term, the disbursement of funds to address the underlying causes of adverse climatic events and to increase farm resilience.

Helping EU farmers

Member states have given a favorable opinion to the EC’s request to launch direct support for farmers in five countries affected by exceptionally adverse climatic events and natural disasters in 2024.

The EC will provide in support: €6.7 million to Croatia, €3.5 million to Cyprus, €68 million to Spain, €4.2 million to Latvia and €16.2 million to Hungary.

Once approved, the EC proposal will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force the following day, so that the five member states concerned can implement it immediately. The relevant national institutions will then have to pay the granted aid to farmers (by September 30, 2025).

EU boosts agricultural sector’s resilience in face of crises

As the EC points out in its 2023-2024 communication, it has adopted 63 emergency measures to support farmers and agricultural producers affected by production losses, reduced prices, higher operating costs or supply chain disruptions.

In recent years, showing solidarity with farmers, the EU has transferred support to the EU agricultural sector, which included:

• Some €450 million for specific measures to support the wine sector and enable crisis distillation, including to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, trade sanctions and recent market imbalances;
• a €500 million support package in March 2022 for producers most severely affected by the war in Ukraine;
• 156 million for farmers in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, who have been hardest hit by increased grain and oilseed imports from Ukraine;
• Financial compensation for farmers who have been subjected to sanitary controls and preventive measures to combat avian influenza outbreaks;
• 330 million in July 2023 for EU farmers from 22 countries facing particular problems in various agricultural sectors, such as higher production costs and the effects of extreme weather events.

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