The European Commission proposed this Friday to give European Union (EU) farmers more flexibility in meeting certain environmental conditions, seeking to ease administrative burdens under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), given protests from the sector.
“Fulfilling its commitment to ease the administrative burden for EU farmers, the European Commission proposed this Friday to revise certain provisions of the CAP with the aim of simplifying and, at the same time, maintaining a strong, sustainable agricultural and food policy and competitiveness for the EU,” the institution said in a statement. .
Brussels states that “these proposals, linked to the conditions and strategic plans of the CAP, aim to […] provide greater flexibility in meeting certain environmental conditions”, giving national authorities even greater flexibility in the application of certain standards.
“Today’s legislative proposal is a direct response to hundreds of requests received from farmer organizations and member states, and complements the Commission’s already ongoing short-term actions aimed at reducing the administrative burden on farmers,” Brussels said in a statement.
At stake are the environmental and climate principles set out in the CAP to ensure farmers receive finance.
To be able to receive EU support, farmers must meet conditional requirements, especially those related to good agricultural and environmental conditions, some of which Brussels is now proposing to relax.
Standards covered address soil protection and minimum cover requirements, potential soil conservation through crop rotation, and maintenance of unproductive areas and landscape features.
In addition, the European Commission proposes to exempt small farms with an area of less than 10 hectares from certain obligations.
Despite criticism from environmentalists over these environmental failures, the community leader ensures in a press release that “the proposal is carefully calibrated and focused on maintaining a high level of environmental and climate ambition”, striking “a fair balance between the need to maintain CAP’s role in supporting the transition of European agriculture towards more sustainable agriculture, the expectations of farmers and Member States and the goal of quickly reaching an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council.”
There are protests across the EU by farmers calling for better conditions for the industry and criticizing strict environmental targets that still aim to improve sustainability.
Responding to demands from farmers demonstrating across the EU, the Community Executive has already proposed a number of measures to support the sector, including simplification of some control procedures, deferment of decisions on reducing the use of pesticides, partial exemption from the rule on conditions applicable to fallow land, and launching an investigation into unfair commercial practices.
At the end of February, EU agriculture ministers approved a first package of emergency measures to ease the bureaucratic burden required for direct payments and free up bean producers from having to fallow land.
CAP is a policy common to all EU countries, managed and financed at European level, based on Community budget resources.
Approximately 38% of the community’s budget (equivalent to 0.4% of the Union’s gross domestic product) is allocated to agriculture and rural development.
There are around 10 million farms in the EU and around 17 million people regularly work in the agricultural sector, representing around 4% of employment.