According to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, farmers are looking to receive “incentives” in order to achieve climate neutrality targets.
The European Union (EU) has a target of net zero emissions by 2050; and a 55% emissions reduction target by 2030, both compared to 1990 levels.
Climate neutrality by 2050 means achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions for EU countries as a whole, mainly by cutting emissions, investing in green technologies and protecting the natural environment.
During a ‘Eurovision Debate 2024’ yesterday (Thursday, May 24) in Brussels between the lead candidates for the Commission presidency, those vying for the role were questioned on climate change and the EU’s response to it.
The EU Green Deal, along with climate neutrality goals, and the implementation of new rules of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) were also discussed.
President von der Leyen said the EU has to implement climate neutrality by 2050, and that is why there are “dialogues with industry and with the farmers to ask them what is that [they] need to reach climate neutrality”.
“In the farmer’s dialogue for example, the answers are very clear from the farmers.
“They say ‘we want climate neutrality because we live off nature. We know that we want to get there, but…we want to move from conditionality to incentives‘,” President von der Leyen said of what farmers have been saying.
The other candidates for the Commission presidency at the debate were; Nicolas Schmit, Party European Socialists; Sandro Gozi, Renew Europe Now; Terry Reintke, European Greens; and Walter Baier, European Left.
Reintke, of the European Greens called for “a reform of the EU’s agricultural policy” at the debate.
The German MEP said a reform is needed “because we see that the farmers cannot live off what they are producing anymore.
“We need sustainability when it comes to climate, when it comes to the environment, but also when it comes to farmers incomes, and for that we need to change the way how we distribute subsidies in Europe,” she added.
As of tomorrow (Saturday, May 25), the targeted review of the CAP will apply to reduce the burden related to controls for EU farmers, thereby providing greater flexibility for complying with certain environmental rules.
Among the terms of the review, small farms under 10ha will be exempt from controls and penalties related to compliance with conditionality requirements.
Other changes include:
- Under GAEC 8 on non-productive features – EU farmers will have to maintain existing landscape features on their land but will no longer be obliged to dedicate a minimum part of their arable land to non-productive areas, such as fallow land;
- Under GAEC 7 on crop rotation – EU farmers will be able to fulfil this requirement by choosing to either rotate or diversify their crops, depending on the conditions they are facing and if their country decides to include the option of crop diversification in their CAP Strategic Plan;
- Under GAEC 6 on soil cover during sensitive periods – member states will have more flexibility in setting what they define as ‘sensitive periods’, and the practices allowed to fulfil this requirement, in light of their national and regional conditions, and in the context of increasing weather variability.