On Monday 6 October, Thomas Waitz (Greens/EFA, Austrian) said that the package to simplify the common agricultural policy (CAP) rules contained the “good, the bad and the ugly”. The European Parliament vote is scheduled for Wednesday 8 October (see EUROPE 13716/11).
He welcomed the reduced administrative burdens for organic farmers and small farms, while stressing to the press the need to cut red tape for farms under ten hectares.
Mr Waitz also welcomed the maintenance of social conditionality, which obliges farmers to respect national labour law or risk losing part of their public aid. In particular, this measure protects migrant seasonal workers, who are often victims of abuse in southern Europe.
The MEP criticised the text’s downward slide towards environmental “deregulation”. He condemned the removal of essential rules such as crop rotation, protecting wetlands and requiring buffer strips to prevent water pollution. Mr Waitz deplored the “total hypocrisy”: “Everybody [claims to be] a friend of bees, but we’re destroying the habitats on which pollinators depend”, he quipped.
He condemned the provisions called for by the right and extreme right of European Parliament’s political spectrum, which seek to treat all farms located in Natura 2000 areas as ‘green’ by definition. In his view, a farm located in a Natura 2000 area can practise conventional farming like any other farmer, and “the fact that you’re in a Natura 2000 area does not make you green by definition”.
According to Mr Waitz, this is an attack on nature conservation and organic farmers. Putting them on the same footing as any other farm in a Natura 2000 area “poses a serious problem”.
Mr Waitz raised the issue with the EPP, who reportedly acknowledged that he was right. The EPP knows that this provision “will not stand up to the EU Council or the trilogue”, but nevertheless wishes to assert its political position.
Mr Waitz warned against allowing up to 10% of grassland to be converted to arable land, which would accelerate the loss of carbon sinks. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)