The EU executive is set to change the current farming subsidies framework, demoting green requirements from mandatory to voluntary.
ADVERTISEMENTThe commission is fine-tuning tweaks in the green architecture of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after member states' agriculture ministers gave the EU executive the green light to reopen the core act.
According to the draft text, the new rules are “limited and well-targeted adjustments of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulations to address certain difficulties in implementation”; in practice, they will reduce to the bare minimum those obligatory green farming practices required to receive funds.
The commission's objective is to convert mandatory elements of the CAP's green architecture – particularly measures on soil cover and reducing soil erosion – into voluntary criteria.
Requirements to grow different crops in a cycle or sequence (crop rotation) will be made easier to fulfil when new crops are introduced, thus fulfilling crop diversification.
The commission will also propose to remove an obligation to devote a minimum share of arable land to non-productive areas, which was already partially derogated this year following French farmers’ protests.
“The first year of implementation of the CAP Strategic Plan has made clear that adjustments are necessary to ensure effective implementation of the plans and cut red tape,” reads the draft text.
Controversially, the commission admits in the draft text that “no impact assessment has been carried out” before the proposal due to the political urgency of tabling it in the aftermath of a "crisis situation" within EU agriculture.
The consultation process ahead of the initiative only lasted one week, the text continued, resulting “in a wide range of suggestions and proposals”.
“We're confident that the measures we have proposed and will propose, allow for a greater degree of flexibility to support our farmers, while not reducing the overall environmental and climate ambition of the Common Agricultural Policy,” a commission spokesperson told reporters today (13 March).
He added that the current CAP remains “the greenest ever, the greenest of any constituency in the world, as I'm aware” and that additional flexibilities are being built only to support farmers for justifiable reasons.
EU leaders gathering in Brussels next week are also expected to highlight “the essential role" the Common Agricultural Policy plays in meeting the challenges the sector is facing, a draft text of the conclusions reads.
The conclusions are expected to green-light the tweaks by tasking the commission with executing “all possible short-term measures, including those to reduce the administrative burden and achieve simplification for farmers.”
