The European Commission, on the 7th of July 2026, has published the EU Strategy on Livestock, a Communication to the European Parliament and the Council setting out a long-term vision for a resilient, competitive and sustainable European livestock sector. For the EU4SUPA partnership, the Strategy is an important milestone: it places at the heart of EU policy many of the very challenges our project is created to address.
The Strategy recognises livestock farming as a strategic sector representing about 40% of EU agricultural added value, employing around 7 million people across 4 million farms, often in areas with few economic alternatives. Crucially for the pastoral world, it explicitly acknowledges that extensive grazing livestock is essential to maintain grasslands that support biodiversity, conserve nature and help prevent land abandonment and depopulation of rural areas. According to the European Environment Agency, one third of the habitats protected under the Habitats Directive depend on extensive grazing.
The Commission also sounds the alarm on trends that pastoral communities know all too well: an ageing farming population, insufficient generational renewal, labour shortages and demanding working conditions. The estimation is that around 11% of EU agricultural land could be abandoned by 2030, with almost a quarter of that abandonment expected in mountain areas precisely the territories where pastoralism is often the only viable economic activity.
Among the actions announced, several speak directly to EU4SUPA’s mission: a plan to bring sustainable livestock production back to regions at risk of abandonment, a roadmap on local and mobile slaughterhouses in rural areas, investment in skills development, training and advisory services for farmers.
This is precisely where EU4SUPA comes in. By developing Pasture and Rangeland Labs in six European countries, an innovative curriculum on sustainable pastoralism and a European network of educators, pastoralists, researchers and policymakers, the project is building the training pathway that this transition will require. Being during 2026 International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, the new Strategy reinforces the relevance of EU4SUPA and confirms that the project is contributing to the knowledge, skills and cooperation needed to support the transition towards more sustainable pastoral systems across Europe.
Read the full Communication on EUR-Lex: COM(2026) 576 final – EU Strategy on Livestock