The European Commission is to withdraw some of its more controversial proposals on simplifying the rules on the greening of agricultural aid.
Following the Agriculture Council of 10 October, European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan pledged to scrap two projects included in the delegated act, which aim to extend the periods of set-aside and of soil cover using secondary crops required to meet the criteria for the greening of aid. However, the Commission is refusing to drop its ban on using pesticides on land of ecological interest.
At the Agriculture Council of 10 October, 18 delegations took position against the pesticide ban for so-called productive land of ecological interest (legumes area), and also against increasing the secondary crop soil cover and set-aside periods (see EUROPE 11643). The Slovak Presidency is to arrange a discussion on this dossier between experts of the member states, within the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) of 24 October.
Hogan announced that he would put back by one year the deadline for these measures to be implemented (to 1 January 2018, with the option for the member states to apply them earlier if they so choose) and that he would withdraw his proposals on set-aside (which will therefore stay at six months rather than the nine months envisaged) and secondary crops (eight weeks rather than ten).
However, the European commissioner, who is under pressure from the environmental NGOs, stressed that the ban on the use of pesticides on productive areas of ecological interest would definitely stand. He is, however, open to the possibility of introducing flexibility. He said that his services were working on a system of declarations by the farmers themselves and visual inspections on the ground. The details will be discussed on 24 October. The Commission stresses that the purpose of this pesticide ban is to improve the environmental efficiency of the CAP and thereby to bolster the credibility of the greening measures for direct payments against the backdrop of the health check on the European legislation. "It is vital that we maintain a high level of environmental ambition with a medium-term view to discussions on the multi-annual financial framework and the future CAP post-2020", a Commission source said. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)