Livestock farming contributes 40% of the total added value of the agriculture sector in the EU. The European Commission has published a new strategy for preserving and developing this valuable asset.        

The European Commission has unveiled a new strategy for livestock farming in the European Union (EU). It made the new policies public in July, saying they were the fruit of “a long-term vision” that recognises “the essential role” that sustainable livestock farming will play in Europe’s future.

Priorities that the Commission lays out in the strategy emphasise the need to preserve and enhance the resilience, competitiveness, sustainabilty, excellence and regional diversity of this part of the continent’s agricultural sector. For the plan to become reality, money will be required. The Commission says it will help the sector gain access to funding and that the investment will be worth it.

It insists there will be benefits for farmers, for wider rural communities and for European consumers. These benefits, the Commission believes, will include enhanced food security for EU countries and easier access to locally sourced high-quality protein for consumers. This protein will come from livestock raised in keeping with stringent animal-welfare standards on farms with good conditions for workers.

Follow the money

Some of the funding for the initiatives underpinning the new livestock strategy will come from the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). The CAP is a broad system of subsidies that farmers can claim. It has been in place for almost 65 years. Its aim is to stabilise income for farmers in the face of market volatility. This, the European Commission has always argued, will help make farming in the EU economically viable in the long term.

CAP payments today can include basic income support, payments per animal and funding linked to specific production systems, or to environmental and animal welfare initiatives. Under the current framework, it calculates that around €4 billion of CAP money is being allocated to “livestock-related interventions” each year. This is around 10% of total CAP funding. Money may also become available from the European Investment Bank and other finance institutions.

The value of livestock farming

“Livestock farming is a diverse and complex sector that accounts for about 40% of EU agricultural added value,” the Commission says. “It generates €400 billion in annual turnover. It has a strong social and territorial impact, employing around 7 million people on 4 million farms spread across Europe, often in areas with few other economic opportunities.” It adds that the sector “showcases European excellence worldwide”, with some of the world’s highest environmental, safety and quality standards.

“It is an important sector,” confirms the European commissioner for cohesion and reform, Raffaele Fitto. He insists that the new strategy “captures that reality” and shows the Commission’s willingness to support the sector “in all its dimensions”. This support is certainly welcome. The strategy also recognises the “increasing challenges” that livestock farmers are facing, listing low profitability, rising costs and changing market conditions as pressing priorities.

Climate change

Environmental challenges are among the most serious of all. In the heatwaves of the summer of 2026, France’s ministry of agriculture imposed changes on the way livestock farmers work. These included a ban on transporting animals between the hours of one o’clock and six o’clock on afternoons when a heat warning was in place. 

In Spain, a wildfire to the west of Madrid in July, one of a series the continent has had to combat this summer, affected more than 75,000 hectares in the provinces of Ávila and Madrid. The government declared a national emergency and tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes.

In the aftermath, a farmers’ association in Ávila said restrictions on the use of grazing lands had produced conditions that helped the wildfire spread. Allowing cattle to continue to graze on land that farmers no longer had access to would have meant a reduction in the growth of the vegetation that the fire fed on, the association, ASAJA Ávila, said. Rural communities were among the most seriously affected by the blaze and ASASJA Ávila has called on the authorities to provide early compensation for farmers who lost cattle, land and stores of animal feed.

The European Commission insists that it wants to help the livestock sector overcome all the challenges it faces.

Success story

“Europe’s livestock sector is a success story, but today it is a success story at risk,” says the commissioner for agriculture and food, Christophe Hansen. He says the new strategy is the result of dialogue with farmers, member states, industry, the scientific community and civil society.

The ambition behind it, he explains, is to strengthen Europe’s food security, reinforce its strategic autonomy and help sustain “vibrant rural communities, especially in regions at risk of land abandonment”. He wants EU farmers to be profitable and “more prepared” for a future that is likely to bring risk and ongoing environmental trials.

One of his colleagues, the commissioner for health and animal welfare, Olivér Várhelyi, says that, thanks to this dialogue with farmers and other stakeholders, the strategy puts animal health and welfare at its core. He says it will strengthen Europe’s ability to prevent and respond to animal diseases, while supporting higher animal-welfare standards. “It is about protecting livelihoods, safeguarding food sovereignty and giving farmers the confidence to invest in the future,” he says.

Prevention, early detection and quick action are the strategy’s priorities when it comes to combatting animal disease. This will enhance resilience in the sector, the Commission insists, reducing farmers’ exposure to risk and enabling them to recover more quickly after a crisis. Within this, the strategy promises to strengthen risk-management tools, enable investment in climate resilience and explore new insurance options for farmers.

Circular farming

To help make European livestock farming more competitive, the EU says it will support moves by farmers to bring in more efficient breeding strategies, feeding techniques and water management. It will also support efforts to reduce emissions.

The strategy has much to say about environmental improvements but, at the same time, the Commission insists that livestock farmers already operate with a lower environmental footprint in the EU than in many other parts of the world. It attributes this to stricter regulations, better farm management practices and greater use of technology.

There are further ways to reduce the sector’s environmental footprint, of course, and the strategy lays out proposals for supporting that work. In fact, it says it wants to promote “circular, welfare-oriented farming systems”. What it has in mind is for farmers to use some of the money that becomes available as a result of this initiative to invest in new tools to measure and monitor emissions. Other important areas for investment will be programmes for on-farm renewable energy and for reducing air pollution.

The transition these efforts will bring “must be fair and balanced”, the strategy document says, with costs distributed along the value chain. It also says it expects farmers who make these improvements to have “the strong potential” to bring in additional revenue from their operations. “Farmers’ efforts need to be better rewarded by the market,” it says.

Consumer demand

As for consumers, the Commission’s analysis suggests that nearly two-thirds of all the protein consumed by EU citizens comes from animal sources. Not only that, it says the gap between animal and plant-based protein consumption is widening. But it reiterates that consumers expect the animal-based goods they buy to be produced in ways that meet high standards.

For this reason, it makes it plain that animal welfare remains a key priority and an important concern. While there can be no slacking off in the work to set and meet these high standards, the strategy text also makes reference to initiatives that will help consumers make informed choices and “better understand the value, quality and standards behind EU livestock products”.

European commissioner for agriculture and food, Christophe Hansen (centre), on a recent visit to a farm in Luxembourg. Credit: European Commission/Anthony Dehez

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