EU countries ask Commission for changes in subsidies scheme

EU agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (26 February) urged the EU executive to ‘reorientate’ the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after the Commission’s ‘simplification’ package was deemed insufficient and farmers took to the streets of Brussels once again.

Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval, who chaired the meeting, told journalists that the Commission’s simplification package, presented on February 22, was “a first step” in the short term but “not enough” to tackle farmers’ concerns.

Clarinval said EU countries had sent the Commission more than 500 proposals for more flexibility at the state level – including more flexible rules on the review of national strategic plans.

“Between the [adoption] of the CAP [in 2021] and today, there are two major factors that [must be] taken into account: the Green Deal (…) and the war in Ukraine,” he said, adding that the EU should therefore be “responsible” and “reorientate” the framework.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski proposed turning some conditionality rules – the good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAECs) – into voluntary measures, an idea that member states supported, according to Clarinval.

Conditionality requirements link the farmers’ access to EU subsidies to mandatory agricultural practices. Eco-schemes are instead voluntary for the farmers.

Wojciechowski hinted at the possibility of transforming GAEC 6 (minimum soil cover), GAEC 7 (crop rotation), and GAEC 8 (leaving 4% of land fallow) into eco-schemes.

“Incentives are always better than forcing the farmers for more environmentally friendly practices,” said Wojciechowski.

Farmers clash with police

While the ministers were meeting in the building of the EU Council, farmers took to the street in Brussels once again after the demonstration of 1 February.

Farmers threw eggs at the riot police deployed around the European Quarter in Brussels and set tyres, straw, and street furniture on fire. Using their tractors, they managed to tear down one blockade and clashed with the police, who used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The police also used water cannons to try to extinguish the flames. After the Council, the Belgian Presidency and the EU Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski received a delegation of farmers.

“I condemn violence,” Clarinval told a press conference. “Recourse to violence is something we do not accept and it is counterproductive”.

“I am focusing on the reasons of the protests and not on their symptoms and we are proposing solutions”, Wojciechowski added.

The member states’ layer of administration

Asked whether the European Commission is to blame for farmers’ discontent, Germany’s Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir acknowledged the EU countries’ responsibility.

“National politics as well as European politics have made complicated things more complicated,” he said.

The CAP reform approved in 2021 includes unprecedented powers of implementation for member states. And this new layer of administration caused stir in many parts of Europe.

José Manuel Roche, secretary for international relations at the Spanish agricultural organisation UPA, who took part in the protests in Brussels, told Euractiv that national governments could have done “much more” to reduce the administrative burden on farmers.

According to Roche, the latest CAP reform gives member states “a wide margin of flexibility” to take steps to cut red tape in areas such as the GAECs and eco-schemes.

Roche said the Spanish government had further complicated matters by making the “digital notebook” – a system for farmers to record their activities – mandatory, whereas the EU had made it voluntary until 2030.

The government suspended the measure after the farmers’ protests.

In October 2023, media in Italy reported that the CAP was going to “change the landscape” of national plains because of the conditionality on crop rotation.

This was also due to a strict ministry interpretation on the obligation to harvest secondary crops, beneficial for the environment. At the beginning of 2024, this interpretation was scrapped.

Upon arrival at the Council, Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný said he did not want to “hide the fact that a number of reporting regulations are defined at the national level”.

When it comes to policy simplification, “all the governance levels must work hands in hands”, the EU Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) stated in a press release.

Tags: protests, legislation, EU