On 26 March, the Farm Europe think-tank said the biofuels industry allows co-generation of half of all plant proteins produced in the EU, while the European Commission is preparing a “protein plan” for the end of the year.
Interinstitutional negotiations continue and are aimed at reducing the share of first generation biofuels in the EU by 2030 (see EUROPE 11992).
Farm Europe has presented a report entitled “Proteins and renewable energy: one and the same challenge”. Despite 30 years of efforts and five European “protein plans”, there has been no real impact on the EU’s dependency on imports, especially as regards soya, says Farm Europe. Some 30 million tonnes of soybean crops were imported during 2016-2017. The think-tank points out that the production of biofuels allows the co-generation of 13 million tonnes of protein-rich products annually (i.e. 52% of the EU’s protein production).
Farm Europe believes that, by calling into question the so-called first generation biofuels within the framework of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II, the Commission will jeopardise European independence as regards plant proteins for animal feed. In practice, the consequences of this would be: greater consumption of fossil fuel energy and of imported biofuels, as well as a larger quantity of imported plant proteins.
“The biofuels sector today provides the best way towards a strategy for protein independence of sufficient size and capacity to reduce Europe’s reliance on soybean imports”, the report reads.
In addition, taking into account the surface areas used for protein crops as “ecological focus areas” as part of a greener Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), has allowed the quantities of field peas, broad beans and soybeans produced in the EU since 2013 to double, Farm Europe states, pointing out that the use of phytosanitary products has been banned since the beginning of the year. The think-tank says: “It is surprising to note that these two pillars of Europe’s protein policy (biofuels and ecological focus areas), that have undeniably given tangible results, are today being undermined by the European Commission itself”.
Strategy expected for end of year. By the end of the year, the European Commission will present a protein plan, the main aspects of which will be research and innovation, agronomy and the environmental advantages of protein crops, the development of supply chains and the trade potential of EU protein plants. The Commission recently launched a consultation exercise with stakeholders on this theme. The European Parliament, for its part, must adopt an own-initiative report in mid-April for an EU strategy for the promotion of protein crops, calling in particular for voluntary coupled payments for all protein crops, the production of plant proteins on ecological focus areas, and the creation of a European platform for identifying crop areas, determining production capacities, and taking stock of all research carried out in this field. (Original version in French by Lionel Chargeur)