Negotiations in Brussels: Agreement on EU agricultural reform


Status: 25.06.2021 5:47 p.m.

After tough negotiations, the EU states and the European Parliament have agreed on a multi-billion dollar agricultural reform. In the future, more money is to be invested in environmental and climate protection. Critics fear a sham package.

The EU states and the European Parliament have agreed on a compromise in the dispute over the reform of European agricultural policy. In the future, more money is to be invested in environmental and climate protection, as confirmed by the chairman of the agricultural committee, Norbert Lins (CDU). Representatives of the EU Parliament and the member states had been negotiating for this since Thursday and until late at night.

The agreement relates to the years 2023 to 2027 and is expected to cost around 270 billion euros. In a next step, the EU states have to submit their national plans for the implementation of the reform to the EU Commission.

The common agricultural policy (CAP) is the only policy area that is financed almost exclusively from the common EU budget. This means that these funds largely replace national expenditure by EU countries.

Ecological regulations and support for small farms

It has now been agreed that in future a certain part of the agricultural money should flow into so-called ecological regulations – i.e. money that should be tied to environmental requirements. What exactly these will look like has not yet been conclusively determined.

With the reform, up to 25 percent of direct payments for farmers will be tied to environmental requirements, although some exceptions may de facto reduce this proportion. On this point, Parliament started the negotiations with a significantly larger share of 30 percent, while the EU countries meanwhile wanted to push through less than 20 percent. Lins emphasized that for the first time there was a mandatory redistribution of direct payments in order to provide targeted support to farmers with smaller farms.

“In some points we might have wished for a different result,” wrote EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski on Twitter. “But overall, I think we can be satisfied with the agreement we have reached.” In May, a three-day round of negotiations failed because of a dispute over environmental regulations.

The EU Commission had already published a proposal for the reform in 2018. At that time it was planned that this should take effect from 2021 to 2027. For this period, the EU countries have earmarked a total of around 387 billion euros to support agriculture. However, since the various institutions were unable to come to an agreement quickly enough, there will be a transition phase for 2021 and 2022, and something will not change until 2023 at the earliest.

Farm deaths and environmental pollution

Agriculture is responsible for a large part of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. The European Court of Auditors recently put this at ten percent and criticized it for not having fallen since 2010. The previous distribution of money by the EU is made jointly responsible for environmental pollution from agriculture and the death of farms. Among other things, it is criticized that so far the lion’s share of EU payments is linked to the land of farmers. As a result, around 80 percent of the funds go to around 20 percent of the companies.

It remains to be seen to what extent the new regulations will actually benefit nature. The EU Court of Auditors had criticized the fact that in recent years even 100 billion euros from the EU agricultural budget, which should explicitly benefit climate protection, had failed to have an effect. It’s not just about emissions, environmentalists also see biodiversity as threatened by the use of pest control and monocultures.

Green and environmental groups are upset

Greens and environmental groups have already announced resistance to the compromise. “We Greens will not support this deal,” said MEP Bas Eickhout. The fear is that planned improvements for the environment and climate will not have their effect.

Conservationists have long criticized the fact that the reform will fall short of its high environmental goals and now see themselves confirmed. The activists of Fridays for Future have long been calling for the reform in its current form to be withdrawn because of the lack of environmental benefits. Greenpeace has described it as “greenwashing”, i.e. only environmentally friendly on the surface. The German Farmers’ Association feared more bureaucracy and less money for farmers.

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Mischa007
June 25, 2021 • 8:03 pm

The critics fear one

The critics fear a sham package? The critics need not fear that because it is. Everything in the economic sector and in the agricultural sector are sham packages that are sold as having no alternative. And then the measure is often referred to as a milestone. Do they actually believe in what they present to us themselves. If YES, then a psychologist would be asked, if not, Justitz. Germany and the EU and their values! The West is largely to blame for the grievances in Africa and other poor countries. Half of Africa is being cut down so that we can eat chocolate that an African can never afford. Child labor is knowingly rioted there. And wages of around € 1.50 a day, not an hour. We call this fair trade. I’m curious how long these lies of the EU and the western world will still work.



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