The states of the European Union are divided, so the EU Commission decides on its own – and enforces concessions for farmers. The federal government must now decide whether these will also apply in Germany.
The EU Commission is relaxing an environmental requirement for European farmers, although it does not have the support of a majority of EU states. The Brussels authority decided on its own to exempt from regulations for a minimum proportion of fallow land on arable land. The authority announced that the requirement to leave four percent of arable land lying fallow or used unproductively will be suspended retroactively to January 1st.
The requirement was actually intended to protect the environment. The Commission suspended the regulation as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, originally to secure food supplies. The exception is now to be extended until the end of the year.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke criticized the decision: “This obligation was intended to slow down the ongoing extinction of species in our agricultural landscapes,” said the Green politician. She is committed to ensuring that the exception is not implemented in Germany.
Exception for cultivation nitrogen-binding Plant
According to the Commission, in order to be able to take advantage of the exception, there is one requirement: In return, farmers must grow nitrogen-fixing plants such as lentils or peas or so-called catch crops on four percent of their arable land. The first proposal mentioned seven percent of arable land for nitrogen-fixing plants. As a spokesman for the EU Commission explained when asked, this requirement was lowered after consultation with EU states in order to give farmers more flexibility.
According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, there was still no majority among the EU states in favor of the project on Friday. “The voting result is the receipt for the Commission’s current zigzag course,” said department head Cem Özdemir (Greens) on Friday. Since there was neither a sufficient majority of EU states for nor against the project in the responsible committee, the EU Commission was able to implement the exceptions independently.
Approval from CDU, criticism from Greenpeace
Whether German farmers can now use the exception is in the hands of the federal government. The chairman of the EU Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, Norbert Lins, appealed to Özdemir to implement the exceptions promptly. The CDU politician sees the exceptional rule as a good sign for European agriculture.
The German Farmers’ Association called for “every opportunity for greater simplification” to be used in the EU’s agricultural policy. Secretary General Bernhard Krüsken explained that the federal government must make a decision by the end of February at the latest so that farmers can adapt to the new rules for the current growing year. “Here it depends on every earlier day of the announcement,” emphasized Krüsken.
The environmental organization Greenpeace, on the other hand, stated that the decision made it possible for the last remaining refuges of many species in the agricultural landscape to be shredded. “Federal Minister Özdemir must now stand firm and not join in with this nonsense in Germany,” said Greenpeace.
Peasant protests also in Bulgaria
With the exceptions, the EU Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen is meeting the demands of protesting farmers. In several European countries, farmers have been taking to the streets for weeks against their governments’ agricultural policies and guidelines from Brussels. The French government then offered the farmers, among other things, exemptions from EU environmental regulations.
Bulgarian farmers are demanding more subsidies from the government and a new regulation of the EU conditions of the Green Deal.
In Bulgaria, farmers blocked the center of the capital Sofia after a week of regional protests. Several hundred representatives of 26 associations – including livestock breeders, dairy producers and fruit and vegetable growers – demanded more subsidies, a new regulation of EU requirements and the resignation of Agriculture Minister Kiril Vatew in front of the government headquarters.