On Tuesday, EU member states agreed to relax some of the environmentally friendly requirements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in a new attempt to calm months-long protests by farmers. This mainly concerns meeting conditions to qualify for European agricultural subsidies.
Brussels faced protesting farmers for the third time in two months on Tuesday, with several hundred tractors causing another traffic chaos. The police stated they used tear gas and water cannons against farmers who attacked them with eggs and Molotov cocktails. Several people were injured.
The relaxation of the rules was approved by a special committee of agriculture ministers without any changes. The ministers hope that through accelerated processing, the easing can take effect this year. The Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament also wants to apply this accelerated procedure, but a plenary vote is still required. This may take place during the week of April 22, in the final full session of this European Parliament.
In practice, the proposed relaxation effectively suspends four environmental restrictions on agriculture established in 2022, such as mandatory fallowing and crop rotation. Due to the Russian war against Ukraine, these restrictions were already temporarily lifted in 2023 and 2024. To fully remove them from the CAP policy, a significant legal procedure must be completed. Therefore, it is expected that the actual handling will be left to the new European Parliament (after June 2024) and the new European Commission (from 2025 onwards).
Belgian Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval said the revision aims to reduce administrative red tape and give farmers more flexibility while “maintaining a high level of environmental ambition.” This claim was rejected by environmental groups, who see the relaxation of Green Deal rules as a major step backward.
French Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fresneau, welcomed it as a step “in the right direction.” The powerful European farmers’ association Copa-Cogeca said that its approval by the member states sends a “positive signal” and calls on EU legislators to follow this example.
German Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir said the changes represent a step back – to the time before the EU made environmental protection a priority. “We will not achieve better results by using old recipes,” Özdemir warned.