At the Agriculture Council on Tuesday 27 June in Luxembourg, Latvia, supported by the Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Polish delegations, asked the European Commission to extend to 2024 the derogations granted in 2022 and 2023 on greening measures (set-aside land, crop rotation), due to unfavourable weather conditions.
These derogations enable the production of more agricultural goods in response to concerns about food security.
For 2023, these countries are seeking additional authorisations to use set-aside land, buffer strips or field margins established by the Common Agricultural Policy’s cross-compliance rules (GAEC 8) for grazing or fodder production. These countries are also asking for greater flexibility in soil preparation for crops during the autumn and winter periods of 2023/2024 (GAEC 6) and for the ratio of permanent grassland in 2024 to be adjusted to take account of farmers’ needs to extend the growing surface. Finally, they want (for 2024) to lift the requirements for crop rotation (GAEC 7) and allow the use of plant protection products on set-aside land.
Slovenia supported these requests, as did Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Bulgaria and Italy, which asked, inter alia, for “flexibility” in terms of eco-conditionality.
France and Germany are cautious. The German delegation is in favour in particular of the payment of advances on direct payments. However, it expressed the view that the CAP rules should not be changed after every climatic event.
“A derogation that is repeated every year is a rule”, warned the French minister, Marc Fesneau, arguing that “we cannot postpone this environmental issue”.
The Commission is examining on a case-by-case basis. Janusz Wojciechowski, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, recalled the measures recently adopted: aid under the crisis reserve, the acceptance of exceptional amendments to CAP strategic programmes, flexibilities in certain sectors, advance payments on direct payments and rural development programmes, and national State aid.
The Commissioner said that the derogations requested by many countries “may bring immediate economic relief, but their impact on the environment and climate will delay the transition to a more resilient form of agriculture”. The Commission services are prepared to consider requests for “targeted and limited” amendments to the CAP strategic plans, “where necessary to identify a specific problem”, concluded Mr Wojciechowski. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)