The Agriculture and Fisheries Council of the European Union is expected to approve the European Commission’s “farm-to-fork strategy” this week, but it is already clear that Hungary will make a reservation.
It is also known that Poland, also an 'agricultural country,' opposes the rule that a large part of the subsidies for ‘conventional’ agriculture may only be granted to organic farming. This leaves it uncertain how binding and compulsory the new Green Deal rules will be.
According to Hungary, halving the amount of chemical pesticides, alongside previous reductions, and raising the share of organic farmland to 25% is too ambitious. When reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers, the different situations in various EU countries and the efforts made so far must be taken into account.
“In recent years, the CAP has provided for more efficient agriculture through intensification and scaling up. But the current model of intensive agriculture directly leads to biodiversity loss, water and air pollution, excessive water use, and contributes to the climate crisis,” states BirdLife Europe, a cluster of 48 national environmental organizations, in a press release.
Leaked amendments, reviewed by BirdLife, reveal that the three largest groups in the parliament—the European People’s Party (EPP), the Social Democrats (S&D), and the Liberals (Renew)—want to further weaken the current EC proposal. According to the environmental organizations, the new CAP will still mainly benefit large agribusinesses and be disastrous for climate and biodiversity.
According to Dutch Member of the European Parliament Peter van Dalen (Christian Union), the EU is finally moving towards an incentive policy. The Christian Union has been advocating this for some time: “Farmers who produce more sustainably and greener should be rewarded for it.”
Van Dalen also considers the EU’s focus on sustainability justified: “High-quality food production for the future must be secured and therefore it is good that the rest of Europe is now also shifting towards circular agriculture.”
CDA MEP Annie Schreijer-Pierik believes we must keep our food production within our own environment. This is not only good for the environment but also important to avoid dependence on other parts of the world. “This is my main priority in the CAP reform. So that this can truly become a viable model for family farming businesses,” Schreijer-Pierik emphasizes.
According to her, there must remain room to make national CAP eco-schemes financially more attractive. “The funds for rural development will—much more than is currently the case in the Netherlands—have to reach the farmer’s kitchen table.” The CDA politician also calls for measures to exclude multinationals and oligarchs from agricultural subsidies.