The European Parliament on Tuesday approved new rules aimed at strengthening the contractual position of farmers and helping to stabilise their incomes.
MEPs adopted the legislation by 560 votes in favour, 75 against and 25 abstentions.
Under the new rules, member states will be required to establish and publish online benchmarks for use in contractual arrangements to help ensure that the final prices of food products better reflect actual production costs and have a direct impact on farmers’ incomes.
The regulation also strengthens the role of producer organisations (POs) in market organisation and collective bargaining. Producer organisations will be able to negotiate directly with buyers, while new provisions will prevent buyers from bypassing POs to negotiate with individual producers.
The legislation also introduces more transparent labelling and marketing rules by clarifying the use of the terms “fair” and “equitable” for agricultural products. The labels may be used where products meet specified criteria, including contributing to rural community development or promoting farmers’ organisations.
The text defines meat as the “edible parts of animals” and reserves a list of meat-related terms exclusively for meat products. These include terms such as beef, pork, poultry, steak, ribs, bacon, liver and sirloin, which may not be used for products that do not contain meat, including lab-grown or cell-based products. The measure is intended to improve transparency in the internal market and help consumers make informed choices.
The legislation also introduces measures to support dairy producers, including mandatory written contracts with opt-out provisions for price indicators and revision clauses, in response to the sector’s challenging conditions.
Rapporteur Céline Imart said the agreement strengthens farmers’ market position, legal protections and cultural heritage. She said the new rules would guarantee farmers a fairer place in the supply chain through stronger contracts and a mandatory mediation mechanism in disputes with buyers. She also highlighted a new antitrust exemption allowing unrecognised producer organisations to organise more freely.
Imart said the legislation also reserves terms such as “steak” and “liver” exclusively for livestock products and explicitly prohibits lab-grown or cell-based products from being designated as “meat.”
The provisional agreement must now be approved by the Council before the new rules can enter into force.
The proposal was presented by the European Commission in December 2024 in response to the difficulties faced by EU farmers. It seeks to strengthen farmers’ position in the food supply chain by improving contract rules, reinforcing producer organisations, simplifying their recognition and promoting voluntary schemes and social sustainability initiatives. It is linked to a separate regulation on cross-border cooperation in enforcing rules against unfair trading practices.
