The proposed measures to simplify the greening of direct aid will not make life easier for farmers, said farmers’ and agri-cooperative organisations in the EU (Copa-Cogeca) in a letter to European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan on Friday 23 September.
The European Commission announced some 15 measures in July to simplify the greening of aid (30% of support conditional on the application of sound agricultural practices). The Slovak Presidency of the Council does not want to open negotiations on the proposals with the member states until such time as the Commission has officially published the regulations (see EUROPE 11598).
Copa-Cogeca was quick to point out, however, that the new provisions would not come into force in 2017, farmers having already made their decisions on next year’s crops.
Like the Agriculture Council, Copa-Cogeca finds two proposals particularly problematic. It says that the proposal to ban the use of pesticides in what are known as productive ecological focus areas (nitrogen fixing crops, land lying fallow and catch crops/green cover) is “unacceptable”. And it is against the increase from six to nine months of the period for land lying fallow.
Greening of aid can only work if it is of benefit to farmers, Copa-Cogeca says, and it proposes a raft of measures: removing the requirement to plant catch crops from a mixture of species, clarifying the definition of permanent grassland, allowing more flexibility in varieties present in seed mixtures, and considering durum wheat and soft wheat as two different crops in crop diversification. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)