After consulting with organisations in the sector as part of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture launched by the European Commission, the Commission has committed to setting up a pilot land observatory. The European Parliament has allocated a budget to carry out preliminary studies for the implementation of this initiative, which is part of the ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food’ developed by the Commission following the Dialogue.

In a policy brief, prepared in collaboration with TNI, ECVC and A2L, specifically for the European Commission and MEPs, we describe the data that must be collected in order to inform public decision-making in the public interest. At AGTER’s insistence, the brief specifically assigns such an observatory the task of making public the ‘beneficial owners’ of agricultural production units in the European Union and, first and foremost, their status as farmers or non-farmers.

Since the adoption of Directives (EU) 2015/849 and 2018/843 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, EU Member States are required to identify the majority shareholders of companies or those who exercise effective control over them. As the capital of agricultural production units is increasingly composed of shares or stock, identifying their beneficial owners is essential in order to determine which of them are actually farmers and which are not, yet still benefit from the land and agricultural subsidies.

The available data already shows that the share of land and subsidies going to people who do not themselves carry out production tasks, owners of production units where agricultural work is carried out by employees or service providers, is growing rapidly. This development is, of course, at the expense of people who want to become farmers by setting up new production units or taking over old ones, even though they often wish to develop agro-ecological small-scale farming. Three per cent of EU units, the largest and most capitalised in the form of companies and mechanised, now cover more than half of the European UAA.

This note, currently available only in English, lists and explains the reasons for analysing the most important data to consider when assessing the effects of land use policies and public support for agricultural production.

It was sent to the European Commissioner for Agriculture by Access to Land, which is coordinating this campaign. AGTER took part in the meeting organised by DG Agri in mid-April 2025 to discuss European agricultural land and the idea of an observatory with European ‘civil society organisations’ (including agricultural unions of all kinds). We will continue to voice these demands during the preliminary study phase to ensure that the pilot observatory does not overlook the essentials needed to make it a genuine tool for guiding public decision-making in the right direction.