On Monday 20 March, the EU agriculture ministers expressed their concern about the effects of the future nature restoration law.
Several ministers (including those from France, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Romania and Slovenia) felt that the European Commission should provide new funds, outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to help farmers adapt to this new regulation on nature restoration.
Ministers again called for their views on the text to be taken into account by the ‘Environment’ Council (see EUROPE 13141/8).
For Denmark, this text risks limiting land use and undermining agricultural production.
France and Italy, among others, have requested that the text and national nature restoration plans provide sufficient flexibility to reconcile ecosystem restoration with maintaining agricultural production capacity. For Poland, the objectives pursued are not realistic.
Germany welcomed the high level of ambition in the proposal, while stressing the need for suitable indicators.
Pollinators. The Commission has presented the EU action plan to reverse the decline of wild pollinators by 2030 (see EUROPE 13106/10). The initiative is not very realistic, lamented Poland, which also mentioned the lack of money. “There are not always chemical-free alternatives”, noted the Polish minister.
Measures for pollinators must not go hand in hand with a reduction in the use of pesticides, Italian minister Francesco Lollobrigida also warned. For Latvia, there must be no additional administrative burden created for farmers.
France stressed the need to avoid “adopting indicators that would lead to a disproportionate administrative burden without contributing to the preservation of pollinators”.
Spain generally welcomed the Commission’s suggestions in the action plan, as did Slovenia, which called for EU funds to implement these actions. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)