The European Commission has today (Monday, July 22) approved a €105 million scheme to compensate Dutch livestock farmers for relocating their enterprises away from nature conservation areas in the Netherlands.
The commission said that the objective of the Dutch scheme is to reduce the nitrogen (N) deposition caused by farming activities in “overburdened Natura 2000 sites” in the country.
As part of the scheme, farmers would be paid for voluntarily relocating their activities from to another location in the Netherlands or in the rest of the EU.
Dutch farmers
According to the commission, the scheme, which will run until July 2029, will be open to small and medium-sized livestock farmers in the Netherlands that voluntarily relocate their breeding activities.
Farmers will be deemed eligible for compensation provided that their sites’ nitrogen deposition load amounts to at least 2.500 moles of nitrogen per year.
The direct grants to farmers will cover up to 100% of the eligible costs, including carrying out a feasibility study on relocation, costs for dismantling, removal, rebuilding, or takeover of other existing facilities.
The grant will also cover the cost of returning the abandoned site to an “environmentally satisfactory state”.
In approving the scheme under EU State Aid rules, the commission found that the scheme is “necessary and appropriate” to achieve “the sustainable and environmentally friendly development of livestock farming, while supporting the objectives of the European Green Deal”.
The commission concluded that the scheme is “proportionate, as it is limited to the minimum necessary, and will have a limited impact on competition and trade in the EU”.
Scheme
In April, the commission approved a proposal to increase the funding for two exit schemes aimed at Dutch livestock farmers.
The main objective of the LBV and LBV plus schemes, which were given the green light in May 2023, is also to reduce nitrogen deposition in “overburdened Natura 2000 protected areas”.
Under these measures livestock farmers are compensated for the voluntary definitive closure of cattle breeding sites.
The schemes are open to small and medium-sized livestock farmers in the Netherlands who permanently close farms on sites where nitrogen deposition load exceeds certain minimum levels.
Farmers who avail of the schemes, which are due to run until February 2028, must also agree that they will not start a similar breeding programme anywhere else in the Netherlands or in the European Union (EU).