The European Commission wants the climate and environmental goals of the 'farm to fork' strategy of the Green Deal to be realized by the EU countries through national strategic plans (NSPs). This emerges from the “recommendations” that Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski presented last week for the 27 EU countries.
Based on the F2F goals, the Commission has drawn up ‘recommendations’ for the renewal of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Although the reduction targets of the Green Deal have not become part of the announced agricultural reform, the EU countries must still take them into account in their national strategic plans.
This means that within ten years, the EU countries must ensure that the use and risk of chemical pesticides and antibiotics are reduced by half. In addition, fertilizer use must be reduced by 20%, and organic farming must be expanded to cover 25% of the agricultural area.
Although Commissioner Wojciechowski previously announced that he would come with 15 recommendations per country, he (so far?) has not provided concrete targets or measurable achievements. To date, the Commission has only prepared a numerical overview of the EU average of six assessment criteria. From this, it can at most be indirectly inferred in which areas the Commission expects progress from each EU country.
The six risk indicators used in the average overview are the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry, nitrogen balance per hectare, nitrate contamination of groundwater, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the amount of agricultural manure, and the preservation and restoration of peatlands and wetlands.