On Thursday 26 October, Benoît Lutgen MEP (EPP, Luxembourg) indicated that he would not abandon his idea of excluding the livestock sector from the current inter-institutional negotiations on the proposed revision of the directive on industrial emissions.
Speaking before the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, Mr Lutgen, rapporteur of the opinion on this dossier, said that during the last trilogue, on 10 October, he had noted “room to exclude the agricultural sector” from the scope of the text (see EUROPE 13269/11).
The idea would be to subsequently create specific regulations (for cattle, poultry and pigs) for emissions from agriculture and “no longer mix it with the industrial sector”. Jérémy Decerle MEP (Renew Europe, French) supported Mr Lutgen's position: “Chickens, pigs and cattle have no place in this directive,” according to him.
While the agricultural sector remains covered by the text, Benoît Lutgen reiterated his opposition to the inclusion of cattle in the scope, a position validated by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13220/4). Peter Jahr (EPP, German) insisted that cattle must be removed from the scope of application.
He also said that he had asked the Commission to provide technical details on the introduction of mirror clauses for the agricultural part of the directive on industrial emissions. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)