Big win for rural areas: EU recognizes error of super-ecological CAP

The farmers’ revolt begins to bear fruit. The European Commission has admitted its mistake and proposed relaxing some environmental requirements this Thursday common Agricultural Policy (PAC), the controversial eco-governance about which Pedro Sánchez’s government boasts so much. The EU’s intention is to reduce the administrative burden on agricultural professionals and apparently to quell rural protests when there are barely four months left for the European elections.

Ecoregimes Those are major changes in the new CAP that comes into effect in 2023. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, its aim is to “encourage and reward agricultural and livestock practices beneficial to the climate and the environment”, although farmers themselves have condemned these ecological regulations on several occasions. “Approved in offices” They produce exactly the opposite effects, such as greater likelihood of fire or higher fuel costs.

Furthermore, 25% of Spanish farmers and herders were excluded from CAP’s environmental assistance because it was impossible for them to comply with environmental requirements. The European Commission has confirmed this and now proposes to simplify some of the requirements of these standards, recognizing that their implementation has been “difficult” in some circumstances.

The document containing the CAP reforms will be discussed with Member States within the framework Agriculture Ministers meeting Next Monday in Brussels. This document lists a series of short- and medium-term actions that can be taken to achieve simplification and which will serve as a basis for discussion and joint action with EU countries.

Changes in ecological cap

The Commission has already backed down by partially relaxing land rules in 2024. fallowThere is also a proposal to replace the so-called ‘BCAM 8’ and now ‘BCAM 1’, which requires the surfaces to be maintained grazing Permanent in the EU since reference year 2018.

There are plans to amend these rules before mid-March to ensure that structural changes caused by market restructuring and livestock herd reductions are taken into account, thereby ensuring that farmers are not penalized in their work. This will not be done and will contribute to reducing the load, as less surface will have to be converted to permanent pastures.

On the other hand, Brussels has proposed to simplify the methodology of some controls Reduce the number of farm inspections by 50% by national administration – a measure that responds directly to requests from Member States – in addition to rationalizing and clarifying the way of evaluating the quality of the surface monitoring system.

The third of the proposed measures includes Explain the use of the concept of force majeure and extraordinary circumstances, a legal term that allows farmers who cannot meet all of their CAP requirements due to extraordinary and unexpected events beyond their control, such as severe drought or flood, to avoid restrictions.