Draft EU proposal hints at major rollback of Green Deal farm rules

The Commission's 'vision' roadmap in February for the EU farming and agri-food sector gave no inkling of wider scrapping of Green Deal commitments. File picture

Months of dreary EU jargon will have to be endured, as the Commission, Parliament, and member states start their summer squabble over seven-year EU budgeting, and the funding for the next common agricultural policy (CAP) is slowly hatched.

But the latest Brussels leak brings a little welcome relief from the tedium, as the Euractiv media network which specialises in EU affairs says it has seen a draft regulation in which the Commission proposes to cut links between the Green Deal and the CAP.

Euractiv says this could be "the most significant blow yet" to the green pro-environment legislation that dominated the previous EU administration.

Going back much further, since about the year 2000, EU farmers had to prove they meet ecological conditions in order to access the full farm income support offered by the CAP. But that bargain with Brussels began to wear very thin, especially after the Green Deal took hold since 2020.

The Green Deal headline commitment is to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To play their major role in this, farmers were set some very ambitious tasks up to 2030. 

They would have to reduce by 50% the use and risk of chemical pesticides; reduce by 50% the use of more hazardous pesticides; reduce fertiliser nutrient losses by at least 50%, while ensuring no deterioration on soil fertility; reduce all fertiliser use by at least 20%; reduce by 50% the sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals and in aquaculture; and achieve organic farming on 25% of EU farmland.

Some of these asks were shot down along the way, but it all became too much for farmers, on top of the existing CAP and national rules and bureaucracy, and they exploded onto the streets and roads of Europe in February 2024, protesting in their thousands.

So the alleged leak of a commission proposal to cut links between the Green Deal and the CAP is welcome news for many farmers. And not such a huge surprise, because many member states and MEPs have called for continued simplification of CAP administration, and relaxation of environmental measures, a process which the Commission began after the farmer protests.

But the Commission's "vision" roadmap in February for the EU farming and agri-food sector gave no inkling of wider scrapping of Green Deal commitments. In fact, it said transition to a low-carbon economy was to continue, and rigorous enforcement and controls of food safety standards remained non-negotiable. 

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Among the only concessions were that the Commission would "carefully consider any further ban on the use of pesticides, if alternatives are not available". The "vision" document promised comprehensive simplification, as part of its effort to make farming an attractive sector for young people to enter.

But the latest leak hints at greater concessions, when agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen presents his proposals, expected this week. However, that might just be reading too much into a few leaked words, with an environmentalist slant. 

There was plenty of that recently, after the European State of the Climate 2024 report said 2024 had a record 335 climate-related deaths due to storms and flooding, at least 413,000 people affected by storms and floods, and an additional 42,000 affected by wildfires. 

Realpolitik

The European Greens warned that, instead of strengthening climate protections, political forces on the right were actively dismantling the Green Deal.

Instead of these paranoid left versus right suspicions which now dominate EU politics, there may be a more realpolitik explanation for giving farmers a break from over-ambitious green regulations.

The fact is that the CAP money pot has been shrinking for decades, diluted by inflation and by EU enlargement.

A huge cut in CAP funding may be inevitable, and perhaps the only way to sweeten it for farmers will be to remove demanding “money-for-green” terms and conditions.

In other words, what used to be the single payment, and is now made up of the BISS and other direct payments, might reduce, but an easing of environmental requirements (and possibly of inspections) might be the quid pro quo.

There is speculation that two legal provisions that currently require EU member states to adapt their CAP strategic plans in line with new climate and environmental legislation will be completely removed in proposals by Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen.