A preliminary political agreement has been reached within the German coalition cabinet on a new insect protection law and on tightening the animal welfare law. This follows a lengthy struggle between the two ministries of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment.
With these two bills from Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) and Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, Chancellor Angela Merkel will talk in the coming weeks with protesting farmers' unions and the sixteen state governments.
Merkel must try to find support within German society for numerous far-reaching measures, barely six months before the new federal elections.
CDU Minister Klöckner has raised many reservations in the cabinet about controversial elements of her colleague Schulze’s (SPD) insect law. Klöckner’s concerns are precisely about the elements that German farmers and several states have been protesting against for months.
From a party-political perspective, Klöckner’s ‘reservations’ pave the way for CDU politicians to resist too many ‘environmental measures’ in agriculture. It has yet to be decided whether the states will retain their significant autonomy over agricultural policy, and whether there will be exemptions. It is known, however, that Chancellor Merkel believes the agriculture dossier must be resolved before the elections.
To protect plants, flowers, and insects, the pesticide glyphosate will be banned from 2023, and its usage will be reduced even before that time. It is now proposed that pesticides may no longer be used on field edges near lakes, streams, and other bodies of water. More agricultural areas will be declared protected habitats. In cities, light pollution must be reduced.
Environmental and nature conservation organizations responded positively. Farmers’ organizations protest against the restrictions on pesticides. The Bundestag and Bundesrat still need to approve the new regulations. Merkel intends to hear the farmers’ associations and state ministers next week.