The negotiating position adopted by the Council of the EU on changes to the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), which is less strict than the European Commission’s proposal, is still “far from sufficient”.
That’s according to Copa Cogeca, the umbrella group of EU farm organisations and agricultural co-operatives.
The council announced last week that it would seek to exclude extensive farms from increased regulations under the IED.
Under the commission’s proposal, farms above 150 livestock units (LU) would be required to operate in line with a permit.
However, in the council’s general approach, member states amended the commission’s proposal so that the scope of the directive would extend to intensive livestock farms with higher LU numbers than 350LU for cattle and pigs, 280LU for poultry, and 350LU for mixed farms, while excluding extensive farms.
Responding to these developments, Copa Cogeca said that the council’s approach, despite being an improvement, has “a lot of grey areas”.
In a statement, the farming body said: “At least, the heated debates surrounding the negotiations brought clarity on one point. The threshold approach proposed initially by the commission is primarily political, punitive and will have unanticipated consequences when applied on-farm.”
Copa Cogeca said that it rejects even the new higher LU thresholds set out in the council’s position.
As well as that, the group said the council did not clarify its position on “critical points which will make [the IED changes] an administrative headache if adopted as such”.
Copa Cogeca drew particular attention to the “aggregation rule”, which may see farms or farm installations combined in order to arrive at an LU figure.
This, the group said, would “threaten the co-operative business model”.
There also remains concerns over the possibility that the private information of farmers or their families could be made public under the new rules.
“The council’s position maintains the possibility of disclosing confidential business information for environment management systems that would basically make public personal information about farmers and their families,” the group said.
The European Parliament is now due to adopt its negotiating position on the IED, after which the council and the parliament will enter negotiations to hammer out final agreement on the changes.
Copa Cogeca said in its statement: “[We] call on members of the European Parliament, in particular members of the committees on agriculture and environment, to send a strong message to protect this strategic sector for the EU.
“It requires time, pragmatic answers and support to continue its ongoing transition, and in any case deserves better than dogmatism and ideology,” the statement added.