On Tuesday 25 April, the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee adopted its opinion, which aims to significantly reduce the scope of the proposed directive on industrial emissions.
Adopting (36 votes in favour, 8 against and 2 abstentions) the opinion of Benoit Lutgen (EPP, Belgian) on this proposal, the Agriculture Committee wants cattle farms to be excluded from the scope of the text and for the revised rules to apply only to factory poultry and pig farms with more than 40,000 places for poultry, 2,000 places for pigs (or more than 750 places for sows) and to installations with 750 livestock units (LU) or more.
Several provisions simplifying registration procedures and reducing obligations for farmers are suggested by the Agriculture Committee.
The EU’s agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) welcomed the outcome of the vote on the opinion in the Agriculture Committee (see EUROPE 13143/6, 13144/20). MEPs “showed their support for EU farmers by rejecting the term industrial facilities for family farming”, Copa-Cogeca noted.
The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety is responsible for this matter. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)