Cattle farms will not be included in the revised and expanded EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) following an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU (also known as the Council of Ministers).
However, both institutions agreed that the European Commission will undertake a review of how emissions from cattle farms should addressed.
This review will take place before December 31, 2026. The possibility remains open that cattle farms may be included in the IED sometime after that review, though it appears that a fresh legislative proposal would be required from the commission to do so.
The original proposal to revise the IED (which covers all industry, not just agriculture, and which already applies to the largest pig and poultry operations), that was drafted by the commission would have extended the IED to many more farms, including, for the first time, cattle farms.
The commission originally proposed that livestock farms of stocking rates above 150 livestock units (LUs), would be included (a livestock unit does not necessarily equate to one animal, e.g., a dairy cow is 1LU, but a younger bovine would be less than 1LU, while a pig would be lower again, and a chicken only a small fraction of 1LU).
However, there appeared to be little appetite in the council and much of the parliament, for the inclusion of livestock farms over 150LUs.
After some discussion, both institutions have agreed to exclude cattle farms, but also to include the clause that the commission undertake the review of cattle farm emissions.
A reciprocity clause was also added to ensure producers outside the EU meet requirements similar to EU rules when exporting to the EU.
For pig and poultry farms that will be included in the IED under the council and parliament agreement, these will be farms over 350LUs for pigs, 280LUs for poultry (300LUs for laying hens), and 380LUs for farms with a mix of these enterprises.
The EU’s coefficients for determining what fraction of a single LU an animal equates to are as follows:
- Pigs:
- Piglets of live weight under under 20kg = 0.027LUs;
- Breeding sows weighing 50 kg and over = 0.5LUs;
- Other pigs = 0.3LUs;
- Poultry
- Broilers = 0.007LUs;
- Laying hens = 0.014LUs.
Commenting on the agreed text of the IED revision, the European People’s Party (EPP) – the largest political grouping in the European Parliament and the one to which Fine Gael is affiliated – welcomed the agreement.
The EPP said: “The new industry emissions law will protect nature without creating more paperwork for businesses. We want to slash industrial emissions, but want to do it together with industry, farmers and SMEs (small and medium enterprises), not against them.”
Radan Kanev, Bulgarian MEP and the parliament’s lead negotiator with the council on the IED revision, said: “We kept cattle out of the scope of the Industrial Emissions Directive. The European Commission must now make a new impact assessment and communicate fairly and transparently with farmers before coming back to parliament with a new legislative proposal on cattle inclusion.”