Last week, EU member states approved new rules for the bloc's Common Agricultural Policy, which allows farmers to apply for subsidies, albeit subject to strict environmental rules. The concessions from Brussels follow months of protests by farmers across the EU - but the resistance to the EU's flagship green ambitions is not over.
Lively protests.
Less bureaucracy and fewer controls for farmers, exemptions from green obligations to access EU funds and revised procedures for modifying national strategic plans - the 27 EU member states last week approved the targeted reform of the bloc's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), proposed by the European Commission in mid-March to respond to farmers' protests that have shaken Europe in recent months.
Farmers have been holding the EU responsible for the - according to them- high environmental demands that they had to meet to receive subsidies from the CAP, as well as for the controversial Nature Restoration Law for the preservation of ecosystems - the latter playing a major role in the EU's Green Deal.
The CAP pays subsidies farmers rely on to stay afloat, but payments are conditional on strict environmental protection rules.
Lively protests against agricultural rules brought the EU's political centre in Brussels to a standstill in February, as farmers in convoys of tractors protested EU red tape. Even after recent concessions, farmers' protests do not subside in some countries, for example in Poland.
On May 9, a group of eleven farmers started a protest in the Sejm, Poland's parliament, demanding a conversation with Prime Minister Donald Tusk about the EU Green Deal. They started a hunger strike a week ago. However, Tusk said in mid-May that he did not plan to meet "this group of protesters" because, in his opinion, "they are not representative of Polish farmers".
After the Commission proposed to loosen some of the CAP's environmental regulations in march, EU member states now gave the final approval, which is extremely quick by EU standards.
The European Parliament approved the measures on April 24.
What's new for the CAP?
The revision means farmers would face fewer hurdles when applying for CAP subsidies. For example, farmers would no longer be obliged to leave parts of their arable land fallow.
In addition to lifting fallow land rules, the revised CAP will require member states to offer additional financial support for farmers who voluntarily leave some land unused.
The revision also loosens the rules requiring farmers to rotate the types of crops they grow. Farmers will be permitted to choose between rotating crops and diversifying them, provided the member state they work in has authorised this.
Member states will also be allowed to exempt certain crops and soil types from rules on tillage, soil cover and crop rotation or diversification. EU countries would also be allowed to relax environmental rules more broadly when extreme weather strikes.
Farmers can retroactively apply the new regulations relating to environmental conditions for the year 2024, as indicated by the Council of the EU.
Slovenia welcomed the measures in the CAP relieving the administrative burden on small farms. Farms smaller than ten hectares, which account for 80 percent of all farms in Slovenia, need not be checked for compliance with environmental protection-related conditions for financial support from the CAP.
The Portuguese minister for agriculture, José Manuel Fernandes, has pledged to speed up payments to farmers, introduce predictability and use all the funds available, particularly if it is support coming from the EU.
Teresa Ribera, Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, described the flexibility of the environmental measures of the CAP, which has been undertaken in response to farmers' requests, as "adequate".
Ribera responded that the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, responsible for agricultural policy in Spain, maintains an intense dialogue with farmers and highlighted that he "has found a very appropriate way to reflect this request for flexibility on the part of farmers".
Resistance to EU green laws continues. While the European Commission sought to appease EU farmers' concerns regarding their environmental responsibilities by loosening the CAP, overall resistance to the Green Deal is far from over.
The impact of the Nature Restoration Law in rural areas sparked heated debates in the European Parliament last year, and fueled agricultural anger at the start of 2024 despite the vast flexibilities introduced.
The environment ministers of eleven EU states last week called on their counterparts to approve legislation requiring the restoration of damaged ecosystems, a key text of the Green Deal which is now blocked.
After tough talks, negotiators from the European Parliament and member states agreed in mid-November 2023 on a watered-down version of this "nature restoration" legislation, an agreement then ratified as is at the end of February by MEPs .
But the final formal green light from the 27 EU member states, essential before this text comes into force, is still awaited.
Due to lack of the required majority (15 countries representing 65% of the EU population), the subject was withdrawn from a meeting of EU ambassadors at the end of March.
Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace have denounced the changes to the CAP, but French MEP Jérémy Decerle believes that the new regulation does not have to stop the EU's environmental agenda. "There is no need to revise the (climate) objectives. We have to remain ambitious when it comes to the environment, because it is also useful and essential for farmers. But at the same time we must give sufficient technical, financial and human resources (to the sector)," he said in an interview with EFE.
Dutch farmers push for even fewer restrictions.
In the Netherlands, the anticipated new government coalition - consisting of the far-right populist PVV, liberal VVD, centre-right NSC and agrarian conservative BBB parties - intends to push for adapting European rules, for example for the use of fertilisers. "In Europe, we will do everything with courage to adapt European guidelines so that they are workable and support the revenue model," according to a coalition agreement presented last week.
Furthermore, the anticipated coalition wants a "reassessment" of protected Natura 2000 areas to eliminate "scattered nature". The parties want to get rid of the EU maximum of 170 kilos of nitrogen emissions from animal fertiliser per year that will apply in vulnerable areas.
The Dutch action group for farmers, the Farmers Defence Force (FDF), was "very happy" with the presented coalition agreement.
"Five years of protests have not been in vain, a crowning achievement of our work," said leader Mark van den Oever.
He pointed to a large upcoming demonstration by farmers' organisations in Brussels on June 4. "We hope that we can achieve the same thing in Europe. Then the circle will be complete. We all have to go full throttle once more," van den Oever said.
Only after the elections for the European Parliament can new parties, such as the BBB, but also the NSC, submit a request to an existing European group to be part of it. The two parties are currently not represented in the European Parliament, as they were established after the last EU-wide elections in 2019.
(The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, ANP, ANSA, dpa, EFE, Lusa, PAP, STA).
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
