5 million agricultural farms have been lost in Europe by 2026.

Omissions

• The claim does not specify the baseline year or timespan: the documented loss of 5.3 million farms occurred over 15 years (2005–2020), not as a sudden or recent event 'by 2026'.
• The decline is a long-term structural trend driven by farm consolidation, urbanization, and generational turnover — not solely attributable to contemporary EU policies as the speech implies.
• The claim rounds 5.3 million down to 5 million, which is within reasonable rounding but slightly understates the magnitude.
• The MEP cites no source for the figure, though it aligns closely with Eurostat data that had been publicly available since April 2023.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostatIn 2020, there were 9.1 million farms in the EU. This is an estimated 5.3 million fewer farms than in 2005 (the equivalent of a decline of about 37%).
• PrimaryEurostat Statistics ExplainedThere were 8.8 million agricultural holdings in the EU in 2023, about 3 in 5 (62.8%) of which were less than 5 ha in size.
• AcademicMDPI — Land (peer-reviewed journal)Between 2010 and 2020, the number of farms in the EU significantly decreased, dropping from 12,008,480 to 9,067,300. By 2020, this figure represented only 75.5% of the 2010 total.