EU Livestock Strategy Wins Backing, but Funding Gaps Raise Concerns

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has broadly backed the European Commission’s new livestock strategy while urging Brussels to provide stronger financial support to help farmers navigate the sector’s sustainability transition.

The committee is calling for a dedicated EU Livestock Fund outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), arguing that simply exploring a future financial instrument will not provide the certainty needed for investment and transformation. It also recommends restoring the CAP budget to 0.5% of EU GDP, linking direct payments to inflation, and introducing mandatory origin labelling for animal products sold across the EU.

The EESC warned that reducing livestock production in Europe could shift output to regions with weaker environmental and animal welfare standards, potentially increasing global emissions. It therefore wants equivalent sustainability standards to become a requirement in future EU trade agreements.

Additional proposals include livestock research funding through the European Competitiveness Fund and Horizon Europe, an animal protein export strategy, and stronger backing for extensive, regenerative, and organic farming systems.

The committee argues that supporting livestock farmers is not only an agricultural priority but also critical to Europe’s food security, strategic autonomy, rural economies, and sustainability goals.

The EESC's push for dedicated EU Livestock Fund outside CAP, combined with CAP budget restoration to 0.5 percent GDP and mandatory origin labelling, reflects concerns that current EU-level support is insufficient for livestock-sector sustainability transformation. Livestock represents one of the more challenging agricultural-sustainability segments given emissions intensity and rural-economy dependence.

The trade-standards-equivalence recommendation addresses genuine risk of production displacement to jurisdictions with weaker sustainability standards. Reducing European production without equivalent import standards could increase global emissions net-net - the "carbon leakage" pattern that also affects industrial CBAM policy.

For livestock producers, food processors, retailers and financial institutions supporting European agricultural investment, Cognitud's sustainability due diligence, supply chain and operations and impact assessment teams help clients evaluate exposure to livestock-strategy implementation scenarios, structure supplier partnerships aligned with regenerative and organic frameworks, and prepare disclosures aligned with CSRD, SBTN and jurisdictional agricultural-sustainability frameworks.