Germany Begins Reducing Regulations for Farmers

From now on, livestock farmers will still be eligible for certain European agricultural subsidies, even if a calf, ewe, or goat has lost one or both ear tags. To implement this change, Minister Cem Özdemir amended the subsidy regulation. Some federal states had also requested this after BMEL conducted a survey among farmers and federal states earlier this year.

The agriculture ministers of the German federal states recently approved the abolition of certain rules in an urgent AMK meeting. For approvals of barn construction projects, the regulatory density is being reduced to introduce a simplified procedure, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The federal states regret that there is still no consensus among EU countries on the abolition of the material flow balance. They urged Federal Minister Özdemir to cut more rules, but he made clear that he wants to maintain the underlying objectives. ‘Reducing bureaucracy does not mean watering down these standards and must not serve as a pretext for it.’  

Since the start of the German 'traffic light coalition,' BMEL has, according to itself, worked on clearing unnecessary bureaucratic burdens. Özdemir acknowledged that the new CAP agricultural policy established in 2022 ‘was made too complicated – the sand must be out of the gearbox.’ 

“If you want to make work easier for farmers, you have to look at the details. Losing an ear tag sounds like a trivial matter, but had direct consequences for the company's account. And I maintain: reducing unnecessary bureaucracy is team effort – the EU, federal, and state governments are equally needed here.”

In the future, German farmers will also no longer need to renew their certificate as an ‘active farmer’ every year. They may reuse an existing certificate if it has already been accepted by authorities. Additionally, Özdemir has allocated one million euros in subsidies for a technical study on the development of electric tractors. The subsidy had already been promised in debates about the phased abolition of cheaper diesel for agricultural vehicles.