The European Commission has approved the Belgian buy-out scheme for peak loaders among Flemish pig farmers. With this, Flanders can buy up pig farmers who want to stop in order to reduce nitrogen emissions in this way, and the Flemish cabinet has now also adopted a national nitrogen plan PAS.
The European Commission does not regard the 200 million euros to buy out peak loaders as illegal state aid. The Netherlands has also been discussing plans with Brussels for months to buy out Dutch peak loaders, but there is still no agreement on this.
The voluntary buy-out scheme in Flanders is an important part of the nitrogen agreement that the coalition in Antwerp drew up last year. Then the Flemish government agreed that pig farming must be reduced by a third. There were fears that the European Commission would see the 200 million as illegal state aid.
The Flemish scheme is open to small and medium-sized pig farms, in the form of direct grants of up to 120% of the loss of asset value. The money may not be used to start another pig farm elsewhere: the Flemish subsidy must actually lead to downsizing.
In Dutch agriculture, such conditions are referred to by some as an 'occupational ban'. Last year, nitrogen mediator Johan Remkes proposed to buy out a few hundred agricultural peak loaders as quickly as possible, in order to legalize PAS detectors.
The Dutch ministers Van der Wal and Adema are working on a broader, regionally-oriented nitrogen approach, but have not yet received Brussels approval for their buy-out plans.
The European Commission has assessed the Flemish scheme against the EU state aid rules and found that the subsidy scheme is necessary and appropriate to support the reduction of nitrogen emissions in the agricultural sector and thus contribute to environmental protection, in line with the European Green Deal.