To ease the pressures on EU farmers, on Friday 15 March the European Commission proposed a major overhaul of several elements of the green architecture of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
In particular, it has suggested suspending the set-aside obligation, relaxing the requirements for crop rotation and winter soil cover, and removing the link between the CAP and the Farm to Fork strategy (see EUROPE 13370/10).
The Commission is trying to defend itself as best it can in the face of criticism that it is abandoning the CAP’s environmental ambitions.
“The main goal of these legislative proposals is to further ease the administrative burden for EU farmers and give farmers and Member States greater flexibility for complying with certain environmental conditionalities, without reducing the overall level of ambition when it comes to the environmental and climate protection objectives of the EU agricultural policy”, said the President of the European Commission after a meeting with the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk (see other news).
Thanks to the proposed changes, it will be possible to apply certain standards in a way that is “more compatible with the everyday realities that farmers face on the ground”, she added.
An end to the set-aside obligation? The obligation to set-aside 4% of arable land is going to bear the brunt of the agricultural protests of recent months. This symbolic measure has never really been applied. For the past 2 years, Member States have been able to derogate from this rule. In 2024, flexibilities were granted after weeks of discussions.
For 2025, the Commission has proposed removing this obligation from CAP conditionality. It is proposed to revise this ‘good agricultural and environmental condition’ (GAEC) number 8, which will now only require the “maintenance of non-productive features” “to improve biodiversity on the farm”. In return, Member States will have to introduce an eco-scheme to support (over and above the basic payment) farmers who keep part of their arable land fallow or create new non-productive landscape features. “All EU farmers will be incentivised to maintain non-productive areas beneficial for biodiversity without fearing loss of income”, explains the Commission.
With regard to GAEC 7 on crop rotation, EU farmers will be able to meet this requirement by choosing to practise crop rotation or diversification depending on the conditions they face and if their country decides to include the crop diversification option in its CAP strategic plan. The possibility of diversifying crops rather than restricting themselves to crop rotation will make it easier for farmers affected by regular droughts or excessive rainfall to meet this requirement.
Here too, eco-schemes could reward more ambitious forms of crop rotation and diversification, in particular by including protein crops in the rotation, so as to improve soil quality and crop resilience.
Another proposed flexibility is that the details of the application of GAEC 6, concerning soil cover during sensitive periods, would be left up to Member States to make them “more compatible with agricultural realities”.
The Commission is proposing that Member States should be able to exempt certain crops, soil types or farming systems from compliance with the tillage, soil cover and crop rotation/diversification requirements (GAEC 5, 6 and 7 respectively). Targeted exemptions to authorise ploughing to restore permanent grasslands in Natura 2000 sites when they are damaged by predators or invasive species could also be possible (GAEC 9). These targeted exemptions can be set for the whole CAP period in the CAP strategic plans, must be limited in terms of area and only be established when they are necessary to solve specific problems. The European Commission will review the changes needed to validate the derogations and maintain consistency with the general environmental objectives of the plans.
Small farms of less than 10 hectares would be completely exempt from conditionality controls and related penalties. “Given that these small farmers represent 65% of CAP beneficiaries, but only account for around 10% of the total agricultural area, this would simplify the work of many farmers without significantly hindering conditionality requirements”, according to the Commission.
The text will be reviewed by the EU Council and the European Parliament under the standard procedure, and will then be the subject of trilogue negotiations. The Commission hopes that the new rules will come into force in early 2025.
The new package of measures includes a second section on trading practices. A non-paper (https://aeur.eu/f/bak ) on the position of farmers in the food supply chain proposes setting up a European observatory of costs, margins and trading practices. A call for experts will be launched in April, with the first meeting scheduled for June (and the second for October). In April, the Commission is also planning a proposal to amend the Common Market Organisation (CMO) with a view to tightening the framework for contracts signed between farmers and their buyers (obligation to sign written contracts, mediation mechanisms, etc.) as well as producer organisations. In addition, a legislative proposal on strengthening the rules governing unfair cross-border commercial practices would be presented at the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025 in order to take action on purchasing centres. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a ‘European Egalim’. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)