After months of farmers' protests, Brussels announced more flexible procedures as well as the withdrawal of some environmental requirements from the CAP agricultural policy. Agriculture ministers have already indicated that they will support these plans to remove nature protection from agriculture.
Organizations such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund are urging Brussels to adhere to the democratic rules of the game that have applied for years. They point out that a European policy change is always preceded by an extensive consultation and participation round. This time, all that was skipped.
The Commission acknowledged that no impact assessment was carried out due to “political urgency” and the “crisis situation.” It appears that the centre-right parties in Strasbourg, with support from conservatives, the far right, and nationalists, will approve the easing measures.
This will happen at the very last meeting of this parliament, because in June, a new European Parliament will be elected in the 27 EU countries. It is then up to the current Commissioners to translate these easing measures into legal treaty texts. Some elements they can handle themselves with the EU countries in the national strategic plans, but for others, a (interim) adjustment of the CAP agricultural policy (2023-2027) is necessary, with support from the ministers and the European Parliament.
It is not yet clear whether the current Environment Commissioner Sinkevicius and Agriculture Commissioner Wojciechowski will manage to accomplish this within the year, or whether they will leave it to their successors, who will be appointed at the end of this year.
“With this legislative proposal, the European Commission has conceded to the false narrative that environment and agriculture are opposed, whereas evidence shows they are interdependent,” said the letter writers. “By prioritizing electoral considerations, the European Commission has broken with years of progress on the EU Green Deal,” they added.