The Council of the EU will seek to exclude extensive farms from increased regulations under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).
Under the European Commission’s proposed changes to the IED, a permitting regime would be extended to many more farms, including, for the first time, cattle farms.
Under the commission’s proposal, farms above 150 livestock units (LU) will be required to operate in line with a permit.
A livestock unit it based on a coefficient and does not necessarily refer to one animal. For example, 1LU would equate to one dairy cow or one male bovine over two years, while 0.8LU would refer to a heifer or non-dairy cow over two years.
However, the Council of the EU has rejected regulating agriculture to such an extent in adopting its negotiating position on the IED changes.
A meeting of the council’s environment ministers (one from each member state) decided the council’s approach today (Thursday, March 16).
In their 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.
Extensive farms would be excluded under the council’s amendment.
The amendment would also provide for the changes to the IED to apply progressively over time, starting with the largest farms.
The member states also added flexibility to the proposal, so that they can adapt penalties and compensations in case of health damage to their various national legal systems.
Member states introduced a derogation from emission limit values associated with ‘best available techniques’ (BATs) in the event of a crisis leading to severe disruption or shortage of supply, though this would come with strict conditions.
The council’s approach also clarifies other areas of the proposed changes to the IED in order to reduce administrative burden for business operators and national authorities.
Now that the council has reached a general approach, negotiations with the European Parliament will begin as soon as the latter has adopted its own negotiating position.
The permits that will extend to farms under the IED sets emission limit values for polluting substances emitted by installations.
The emission limit values are based on the best available techniques (BATs) to restrict emissions.
The BAT for determining emission limits on farms is the LU system, which is in turn based on feed requirements for different types of animals.