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The EU Executive on Tuesday (12 March) gave member states more flexibility when applying one of the environmental requirements for receiving EU subsidies: “Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions” (GAEC). announced delegation rules that allow
The move is aimed at responding to demands by protesting farmers to reduce the administrative burden of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and is part of a series of measures to be presented on Friday.
The regulations announced on Tuesday change the obligation to keep permanent grassland areas stable after the 2018 base year, allowing more flexibility for farmers and national governments.
Permanent grassland enriches soil, locks in carbon and promotes biodiversity. GAEC 1 requirements specify that the size of the surface area to be preserved or restored must be based on the ratio of permanent grassland to the total agricultural area of the reference area.
The French were among the first to suggest that such obligations to maintain or restore grasslands, even if farmers converted to arable agriculture, were too complex.They repeatedly called for simplification.
At the last extraordinary European Council meeting on February 1, French President Emmanuel Macron already asked the European Commission for “flexibility” on the issue.
The publication of the regulations is just the first step before new measures are announced on March 15th. The measures include legislative proposals to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy and a document outlining possible initiatives in the food chain.
CAP 2023-27 includes a total of nine GAECs. However, in a document circulated on February 22nd, the Commission announced that four of the They announced that they are considering adjustments.
All of this is planned “with in mind the need to uphold” CAP’s green commitments and “the policy objectives reflected in the decisions of our co-legislators in 2021,” the Feb. 22 document said. Are listed.
Among other measures being considered by the European Commission are exempting small farms (less than 10 hectares) from managing compliance with GAEC requirements and providing flexibility for EU countries wishing to change their national CAP strategic plans. This includes improvements.
Green group reaction
Environmental NGOs warned on March 6 that relaxing GAEC requirements “would be a setback compared to the previous CAP period” in terms of environmental ambitions.
On Tuesday, Greenpeace’s EU agriculture activist Marco Contiello said: “Farmers are facing serious hardship, but these proposals do little to address it and remove the last bits of environmental protection from EU agricultural policy. Just strip it away.”
“The commission is once again beating the drum of ‘farmers versus nature’. This is a false conflict that shifts the focus away from the root causes of the problems facing farmers and worsens their situation in the long run.” Contiello concluded.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
Read more at Euractiv
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