EU Commission wants to propose relief for farmers

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Farmer protests in Thuringia: “Ax to the planned greening of agriculture”

Photo: Martin Schutt/dpa

In light of the recent farmers' protests, the EU Commission wants to propose relief for farmers on Friday.

Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on Thursday he plans to weaken regulations under the EU's Green Deal climate program.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's flagship project aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral region in the world by 2050.

The weakening measures now planned affect the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a set of rules that forms the basis of agricultural subsidies from the European Union budget.

For the funding period until 2027, important paragraphs were tightened to help fight species extinction and climate change.

This also includes the regulation of the proportion of fallow land, i.e. areas on which no crops should be grown.

It was recently suspended several times in view of the war in Ukraine.

It should not apply to the current year either in order to dampen the anger of farmers after the abolition of agricultural diesel subsidies.

Benefits for farmers

According to Wojciechowski's plans, the obligation should now be completely eliminated.

The advantage for farmers: They receive subsidies for every fallow hectare and not only when the original four percent target is exceeded.

Disadvantage: Animals and plants are likely to lose refuge, especially in intensively used regions.

The currently strict rules on crop rotation, i.e. the annual change of the main crop on a particular arable land, are also at issue.

The provision aimed at protecting soils should also be handled less strictly in the future.

In general, the member states should be allowed to interpret the rules more freely than before.

In the bureaucracy chapter, the EU Commission is particularly thinking about companies that cultivate less than ten hectares.

There will be no need to check whether eco-regulations are actually being adhered to.

The announcement was met with sharp criticism from the Greens in the European Parliament.

Its agricultural expert, Martin Häusling, warned the Commission against putting the “axe on the planned and necessary greening of agriculture.”

Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) had previously spoken out in favor of lower administrative burdens for farmers and described EU agricultural policy as a “bureaucratic monster”.

mic/AFP