Currently there is ample discussion amongst EU Institutions (European Commission, European Parliament and Member States' Governments) on the opportunity for setting up a comprehensive EU-wide framework on risk and crises management in agriculture. With the aim of analyzing the position taken by the European Commission on March 2004, the article discusses the possibility of setting up such a common framework, given the prospects of the reformed CAP. In so doing, the existing emergency measures in the various European member States are surveyed and the strengths and weaknesses of the options ad-vanced by the European Commission are appraised. The conclusion is that, given the existing constraints on the possible expansion of financial resources devoted to agriculture in Europe, the institution of a common program based on payment of income integrations or of insurance premiums’ subsidies is highly un-likely. Better prospects are those for an intervention based on supporting farmers’ mutual funds and, more generally, on indirect support to credit, insurance and financial markets, in order to make them more easily accessible by farmers.