EU member states should reshape their land policies to improve access to land for new farmers, tackle the dominant position of big players and end land speculation, the European Parliament stated in Brussels on Thursday 27 April.
With its adoption, by 524 votes to 37, with 45 abstentions, of the own initiative report by Maria Noichl (S&D, Germany), Parliament calls on the member states to tackle the undesirable impacts that land speculation and concentration have on local communities (see EUROPE 11750). It wants to see the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, endorsed by the FAO’s Committee on World Food Security in 2012, applied by the EU and its member states.
Capping direct payments. MEPs also point out the possibility open to the member states of reducing the share of direct payments exceeding the upper limit of €150,000 by at least 5%, as set out in Article 11 of Regulation No 1307/2013 (the direct payments regulation). Parliament believes that, under the reformed common agricultural policy (CAP), ceilings should be introduced, and the direct payments scheme adjusted, in such a way as to “give added weight to the first hectares”, and that “steps should be taken to facilitate investment and the disbursement of direct aid to small farms”. The Commission is called on to introduce a more effective aid redistribution system in order to guard against farmland concentration.
European Coordination Via Campesina and the Hands on the Land coalition welcomed the adoption of the report and said in a press release that it was time to “change land policies in Europe”. They say that the report could serve as the starting point for the creation of new rules across Europe that would prevent land grabs by big (and often non-agricultural) companies and land concentration and provide better access to land for small and new farmers. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)