The Court of Justice of the EU has not upheld (case No. C-287/24) on Thursday 10 July, the concerns of the Belgian Royal League for the Protection of Birds, which had challenged a Walloon government decree encouraging the cultivation of fallow land in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It was adopted in application of Commission Implementing Decision 2022/484, which, in view of the impact of the conflict in Ukraine, authorised Member States to adopt measures to increase agricultural production, by way of derogation from the provisions in force concerning set-aside land.
The Belgian Royal League challenged this decree before the Belgian Council of State, arguing that it favoured the cultivation of set-aside land to the detriment of bird species.
The Court therefore had to rule on the conformity of the implementing decision with European regulations on direct payments to farmers.
The Court held that there was nothing to affect the validity of the Commission’s decision. The Commission duly justified its decision by stating that the invasion of Ukraine had led to a sharp rise in commodity prices, affecting agricultural supply and demand, thus explaining the overall situation that led to the adoption of this implementing decision.
It also validly set out the general objective of its decision by stating that, in order to address the situation in Ukraine, it was necessary to increase agricultural production in the Union and to authorise Member States to derogate from the conditions relating to the “green payment”, including the ban on the use of plant protection products.
Link to the judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/hto (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)