EP gives green light to relaxation of agricultural policy

The European Parliament approved a revision of the European Union’s common agricultural policy (CAP) on Wednesday afternoon.

The revision provides a number of relaxations that, among other things, ensure a lower regulatory burden for farmers. Rules are also changing for three greening measures – the so-called GAECs – that farmers must comply with in order to qualify for the basic hectare premium from the CAP.

According to the text of the revision, Member States will be given more leeway in applying the CAP requirement to keep the ratio between permanent grassland and agricultural area above 5 percent compared to 2018.

More flexibility

The changes also give EU countries more flexibility to grant exemptions from CAP standards, for example if they cannot be met due to extreme weather conditions. Small farms of less than 10 hectares would be exempt from controls and penalties for non-compliance with certain CAP rules.

On Wednesday, the EP approved the proposals with 425 votes in favor, 130 against and 33 abstentions. In order to speed up the adoption of the measures, Parliament agreed to deal with the file under the so-called urgency procedure.

The regulation now needs to be approved by the Council. But that seems like a formality. The emergency procedure allows farmers and gardeners to apply the revised environmental conditions for their CAP applications as early as 2024.

The European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, took the initiative for the CAP relaxations. The reason was the fierce farmers’ protests that were held in various EU member states and Brussels against the erosion of farmers’ revenue models.

The three exemptions in the greening requirements

Specific exemptions are introduced for certain GAEC standards, such as:
•GAEC 6 on land cover during sensitive periods: Member States will be given more flexibility to decide which soils to protect and in which season, based on national and regional specificities.
• GAEC 7 on crop rotation: crop rotation remains the main practice, but Member States can use crop diversification as an alternative. This is less demanding for farmers, especially in areas that experience drought or high rainfall.
• GAEC 8: farmers are only obliged to maintain existing landscape features and are now encouraged on a voluntary basis to leave land fallow or create new landscape features through eco-schemes.