For weeks, farmers have been protesting, sometimes violently, in the EU against, among other things, environmental regulations and too much bureaucracy. Now the EU Commission is taking another step towards them.
After violent farmers’ protests, the EU Commission wants to allow relaxed environmental regulations for farmers. This includes, among other things, the rules for brownfield sites, as the Brussels authority announced. This refers, for example, to standards that are intended to ensure the good agricultural and ecological condition of areas. In principle, farmers must adhere to these in order to benefit from the EU agricultural subsidies worth billions.
From the perspective of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the proposed changes reduce the environmental protection ambitions of the common EU agricultural policy. The ministry said in a statement that they wanted to push for adjustments. Cutting bureaucracy should not mean that environmental protection suffers, said Minister Cem Özdemir. “What we think we have lost today will have to be rebuilt all the more laboriously,” said the Green politician. “It would be the wrong approach to play off the farmers’ legitimate concerns for more support and planning against the existentially necessary protection of nature, the environment and biodiversity; that would have a negative impact.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sees it differently. Agricultural policy will be adapted to the changing reality and will remain focused on the main priority of environmental protection. The Commission recently presented several proposals for relief for farmers after farmers took to the streets in the EU, some of them violently.
The German Farmers’ Association (DBV) welcomed the proposals as a first step in the right direction. “Today’s proposed regulation by the EU Commission can and should only be the beginning of a significant reduction in the burden of bureaucracy and requirements for farmers,” said DBV Secretary General Bernhard Krüsken.
Until now, farmers have been obliged to leave part of their arable land fallow or to use it unproductively. The requirement is intended to protect the environment. The Commission proposes to allow more flexibility in this obligation. In the future, farmers should decide for themselves whether they want to continue using part of their arable land unproductively.
The Member States should in turn reward farmers who leave land fallow despite relaxing the regulations, as the Commission announced. In return, they would then receive additional financial support through an eco-program that all member states would have to offer.
Crop rotation and minimum soil cover
According to the Commission’s proposal, a regulation on crop rotation should fundamentally remain in place. However, the member states would have the opportunity to give their farmers a choice. Accordingly, they could either change the crop rotation or diversify their crops. In contrast to monocultures, crop rotations – i.e. the alternation of different plants in the field – are intended to protect the soil or require fewer pesticides.
The regulation of the so-called minimum ground cover should also be relaxed, as the commission also announced. This currently states that at least 80 percent of the arable land must be covered within a specified period of time. According to the Commission’s proposal, the Member States should soon decide on this period themselves. The proposals also allow small farms to be exempt from controls and sanctions related to environmental requirements.
Özdemir also criticized the fact that the EU Commission had not thoroughly analyzed the exact effects of its proposals. Green MEP Jutta Paulus sees the farmers’ protests as a sign that the EU’s agricultural policy has failed. “There is de facto a two-class society within farmers. 20 percent of the companies receive 80 percent of the funding,” she told the German Press Agency. There needs to be an honest debate about how farmers can live comfortably.
Source: Stern
