The European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political grouping in the EU Parliament, has adopted a resolution rejecting the controversial EU Nature Restoration Law and the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR).
The EPP argues that the proposed regulations place an unfair burden on farmers, who are already under pressure to increase food production in the face of geopolitical challenges.
The party adopted its position on the future of agriculture during a recent meeting in Munich, Germany.
EPP vice-president Siegfried Muresan said that the party strongly defended agriculture as “a strategic sector” which delivers “food security” and should provide a “decent income” for farmers.
EPP
The resolution rejected the EU Commission’s proposal on the SUR as it sets deadlines that it believes are too strict and “does not offer farmers viable alternatives”.
It also rejected the commission’s Nature Restoration Law as it might raise additional bureaucratic hurdles for farmers and risks further endangering the economic viability in rural areas.
The party said that the Covid-19 pandemic and the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia reminded EU citizens that we cannot take food for granted.
Mursen said that the EPP stands for a sustainable, future-orientated, innovative and competitive agriculture sector that produces safe, high-quality food in sufficient quantities and sustainable energy such as biomass.
The Romanian MEP added that the sector would also have to respond to challenges and societal concerns about the environment, climate change and animal welfare.
Nature Restoration Law
The EPP called for a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) beyond 2027 with a “strong budget” to be negotiated after next year’s European elections.
“We will advocate for measures supporting young farmers, as generational renewal should be a priority to maintain agricultural activity, which ensures both food security and vibrant rural communities.
“Boosting measures to support women in agriculture is also central to this as well as securing generational renewal and preventing land abandonment,” the party said.
The EPP said that “a strong CAP, equipped with the necessary budget, is a key driver in ensuring the sustainability of European agriculture from the economic, environmental and social perspectives, while ensuring a decent income for farmers”.
“We should support farmers to use less inputs such as pesticides, fertilisers and antibiotics and we believe that the CAP, through its eco-schemes, agri-environmental programmes that boost innovation, and farm advisory system, must support them in this,” it added.
“We fully support the objective of reducing the use of such inputs in agriculture as it is a win for the environment, consumers and farmers alike. Precision farming and data-driven efficiency gains can contribute to that.
“However, now is not the time to endanger food security in Europe. Therefore, we reject the proposal on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides as the reduction targets chosen are simply not feasible and the proposal does not offer farmers viable alternatives.
“Equally, we reject the proposed Nature Restoration Law. In too many regions or member states the implementation of existing nature legislation has led to a bureaucratic nightmare and planning deadlock, endangering the economic viability in rural areas, food security, renewable energy production, crucial infrastructure,” the EPP said.
It called for a “huge investment package” to fund research and innovation to build “a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector”.
Scaremongering
The organisers of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Save Bees and Farmers” has criticised the EPP’s call to withdraw the EU nature protection package.
“With this move to bury two flagship regulations of the European Green Deal, the EPP would abandon three basic principles of responsible European policy-making, by torpedoing the implementation of EU law, contradicting a broad scientific consensus and endangering the future of our livelihoods,” Martin Dermine, initiator of the ECI, said.
Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has claimed that the EPP has “resorted to scaremongering and acting in bad faith”.
“As the debate over the EU Green Deal proposals continues, the rejection puts the future of European agriculture and the environment in real danger
“Droughts, floods and forest fires are regularly gripping Europe and threatening farmers’ livelihoods.
“Instead of looking for solutions to make farming more resilient to these recurring events, EPP rejects the one solution we have at our disposal – nature restoration,” Sabien Leemans, senior biodiversity policy officer at the WWF European Policy Office, said.