63 The Common Agricultural Policy after 2027: the European Commission's proposal and the position of the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture and the Sea JOÃO MARQUES AND EDUARDO LOPES Office for Planning, Policy and General Administration (GPP) 1. Overview of th eEuropean Comm ission'sproposal The European Commission's proposal for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2027, within the framework of the European Union (EU) long-term budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-20341, aims, according to the Commission, to be simpler and more flexible, and to better respond to socio-economic, climate, environmental and geopolitical challenges, while continuing to meet the needs of farmers, rural communities and society. It also states that it aims to respond to four basic challenges: geopolitical tensions (war in Ukraine), economic competition (China and the US), climate change and the need to repay the NextGeneration EU debt (RRF – Recovery and Resilience Facility). Four headings are proposed to address these four challenges: I. Economy, Social and Territorial Cohesion of Europe, Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Areas, Prosperity and Security (with national and regional partnership plans and NextGeneration EU reimbursement); II. Competitiveness, Prosperity and Security; III. Global Europe (with common foreign and security policy, etc.); IV. Administration. It appears that the CAP will now be included in the first heading, in a common fund that brings together the CAP and all Cohesion funds, and which will be managed through national and regional partnership plans. These plans are bound to be extremely complex, making them difficult to prepare, approve and reprogramme, as well as to implement and coordinate their components during the period. Given the importance of the CAP, it is expected that the CAP budget will be ring-fenced within this single fund. However, a substantial part of CAP interventions is placed outside this ring-fencing, dispersing and complicating its implementation. On the other hand, the aim is to maintain the level of support, but this is achieved through an increase in co-financing by each Member State. Interventions outside the ring-fencing will have to 'compete' with the interventions 1 Please see box with summary description of the Commission's proposal for the 2018-2034 MFF at the end of this article.
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