The European Commission relaxes the controversial proposal to reduce fertilizers in agriculture. The total ban in 'vulnerable gebieden' will be lifted, and relaxations will also be introduced in water-rich gebieden.
The EU Commissioners Virginius (Environment) and Wojciechowski (Agriculture) will announce this on Monday at the monthly LNV ministerial meeting in Brussels.
The announced relaxations are contained in an unofficial memorandum that has been sent to the 27 LNV ministers in recent days. On Monday they will discuss the original pesticide proposal to reduce the use of fertilizers by 20 percent within a few years, and to even halve chemicals. It was already known that not only politicians in the European Parliament but also many EU ministers were against it.
The leaked unofficial communication to the ministers has led to displeasure in the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament because the EU Commissioners make concessions to the ministers at the very last minute, without first discussing it with the EU politicians.
It has also become clear again that the MEPs of the AGRI agricultural committee and the ENVI environmental committee are still hopelessly divided about the new pesticides regulation. The proposed measures fall under the authority of the Environment Committee, much to the dissatisfaction of their Agriculture colleagues.
Those two committees have not been able to reach an agreement on the division of powers for several weeks. After several conciliation meetings and many letters, the file finally ends up in the hands of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.