International audience This communication is organized into two parts. The first presents an analysis of, firstly, the main features of European agriculture (diversity of productions/territories, EU's competitive position in the world) and, secondly, the economic outlook (2020) for various agricultural productions (production, consumption, trade and prices). The second part addresses the question of the evolution of support instruments to the European agricultural sector and presents the main orientations of the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The European Commission has, in fact, presented in October 2011 new regulatory proposals to reform the CAP for the period 2014‐2020. These proposals are currently the subject of intense debate both within Parliament and Ministries of agriculture of the twentyseven Member States. By maintaining the principle of decoupling of direct payments, the future CAP will have to better integrate environmental challenges.