Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have approved a revision of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to ease the administrative burden on EU farmers.
This is reported by the press service of the European Parliament.
It is noted that now the resolution must be approved by the Council and after that, farmers will be able to apply for EU financial support, taking into account the revised environmental "reservations".
The CAP revision changes the rules on the three environmental conditions that farmers must meet to receive funding. In addition, it provides more flexibility for EU countries to establish exceptions to CAP standards in cases where there are problems with their implementation. It is reported that small farms of up to 10 hectares will be exempt from controls and fines for violating some CAP rules.
The targets for agriculture are particularly ambitious by 2030:
- a quarter of EU agriculture should become "organic";
- the use of pesticides should be reduced by 50%;
- use of fertilizers — by 20%;
- the use of antimicrobial drugs in agriculture and aquaculture — by 50%;
- food waste during production must be reduced by 50%.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in the Czech Republic in February 2024, hundreds of farmers protested against the Green Deal, which imposes restrictions to combat climate change, high energy prices, and bureaucracy.
The European Commission in March proposed to relax a number of rules of the Green Deal (Green Deal) for farmers who have been protesting across Europe for the past few months.
