A number of MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, including Elisabeth Köstinger (EPP, Austria) and Clara Eugenia Aguilera Garcia (S&D, Spain), once again protested, on Tuesday 2 May, against the European Commission’s controversial plans to ban the use of plant protection products on productive ecological focus areas (see EUROPE 11749).
The agriculture committee voted in March to extend the review period on the delegated act simplifying certain greening measures by two months, until mid-June. Parliament has yet to come to a decision.
On Tuesday, the Commission presented to the committee the recent report which reveals that the overall percentage of ecological focus areas (EFAs) reported on arable land is almost double the required 5% per holding (see EUROPE 11757). The Commission is not proposing to increase the percentage of land given over to EFAs from 5 to 7%, a decision welcomed by Ulrike Müller (ALDE, Germany) and Angélique Delahaye (EPP, France). Several MEPs stressed the need to increase pulse production in the EU and to reduce the EU’s dependence on imports. Michel Dantin (EPP, France) was quite strong in his criticism of greening of aid measures, which, he said, were labyrinthine. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)