The Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) is a

Directorate-General Within the European Union (EU), Directorates-General are departments with specific zones of responsibility. Within the European Commission specifically, Directorates-General are the equivalent of national-level Ministry (government department), m ...

of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. The DG AGRI is responsible for the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

policy area of agriculture and rural development. The work of the DG AGRI is closely linked with the

Common Agricultural Policy The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Commission. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce ...

(CAP). The Director-General (since April 2020 - until May 2025) was Wolfgang Burtscher, with Mihail Dumitru serving as Deputy DG. The

European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development The Commissioner for Agriculture is a member of the European Commission. The post is currently held by Commissioner Christophe Hansen. The post is in charge of rural issues, including most notably the controversial Common Agricultural Policy (CA ...

in the von der Leyen Commission is Christophe Hansen, who took office in 2024. Its address is 130 Rue de la Loi, Brussels. In 2020 it had 851 employees.

Mission

The mission statement of DG Agri is closely linked to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The DG's current concrete concerns includ

* Managing and developing the CAP * Reinforcing rural development policy as the "second pillar of the CAP" * Safeguarding the European model of agriculture * Conducting the enlargement process

Leadership and staff

The Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development has a staff of about 1000 people.

Commissioner

The

have been * Phil Hogan (2014–2019) * Janusz Wojciechowski (2019–2024) * Christophe Hansen (2024-)

Directors General

* José Manuel Silva Rodríguez (1999–2005) * Jean-Luc Demarty (2005–2010) * José Manuel Silva Rodríguez (2010–2013) * Jerzy Bogdan Plewa (2013–2019) * María Angeles Benítez Salas (2020, acting) * Wolfgang Burtscher (2020–2025) * Mihail Dumitru (2025, acting)

Structure

The DG AGRI encompasses 12 Directorates, all headquartered in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

: * A: International Affairs I, (in particular WTO negotiations) * B: International Affairs II, (in particular enlargement) * C: Economics of Agricultural Markets and single CMO * D: Direct Support, Market Measures, Promotion * E: Rural Development Programmes I * F: Rural Development Programmes II ( SAPARD) * G: Horizontal Aspects of Rural Development * H: Sustainability and quality of agriculture and rural development * I: Internal Resource Management * J: Audit of Agricultural Expenditure * K: Relations with other Institutions; Communication and Documentation * L: Economic Analyses, Perspectives and Evaluation * M: Agricultural Legislation

References

External links

Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development
Agriculture and Rural Development European Union and agriculture

Rural development in Europe {{forestry-agency-stub