Targeted CAP amendments on environmental conditionality

Summary:

On 15 March 2024, the Commission put forward a regulation that would amend two regulations concerning the common agricultural policy (CAP) – the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation and the CAP Horizontal Regulation. The proposal is part of the Commission's response to widespread protests by farmers, opposing the CAP's administrative burden and environmental requirements. It was put forward without a formal public consultation and without an impact assessment. The proposal aims to reduce several environmental requirements to which farmers must abide to receive direct payments. The requirement to devote at least 4 % of arable land, at farm level, to non-productive areas or features, including land lying fallow, would no longer be mandatory for CAP beneficiaries. However, Member States would be required to offer a top-up, in the form of eco-schemes, to farmers setting aside land for non-productive features. Member States would be able to demand crop diversification instead of the more demanding crop rotation. They would also be able to introduce exemptions from certain requirements, and temporary derogations in case of extreme weather. The proposal would also eliminate controls and penalties regarding environmental requirements for small farms, and simplify the procedure to amend the national CAP strategic plans for Member States. Organisations representing farmers welcomed the proposed administrative simplification of the CAP, but were divided on the reduction in green requirements. Environmental organisations, meanwhile, criticised the proposal as harmful and undemocratic. The Commission called on the co-legislators to adopt the proposal as fast as possible. In the Council, the Special Committee on Agriculture endorsed the proposal with only minor technical modifications, and called on the Parliament to do the same. Should Parliament decide to apply the urgent procedure, the vote on the proposal would take place during the April II plenary session.

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