At their next meeting on 30 January, the EU agriculture ministers will discuss the sensitive issue of the proposed directive on industrial emissions.
The ministers have previously criticised the broadening of the scope of the text and the lowering of the threshold to 150 livestock units (LSU).
The experts of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) discussed this proposal (see EUROPE 13093/7) on Monday 16 January. The rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment proposes to remove the rearing of cattle, pigs and poultry in small-scale and organic farming from the scope of the directive and to raise the threshold above which livestock holdings are regulated by the directive to 300 LSU.
At the SCA, the European Commission considered that the proposal was “proportionate to the extent that it only concerns the largest farms”.
Most delegations in the SCA highlighted: - the need to consider the financial and administrative burden on farmers and national administrations; - the need to give consideration the specificities and regional structures of the Member States, the density of livestock as well as the type of farm; - the need for a higher threshold than 150 LSU, with some delegations proposing different thresholds for different types of farms/countries/animals; - the need for a longer transition period.
In addition, some Member States have pointed to the adverse effect of the proposal on food security and viability of farms, with the risk of increasing export dependency. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)