Summary of the day
Farmers have continued protesting in France and Belgium.
The European Commission, responding to pressure, proposed to allow EU farmers exemptions this year from common agricultural policy rules obliging them to keep certain areas non-productive.
The European farming lobby said “this decision comes late in the agricultural calendar and remains limited”, calling on EU leaders to do more.
The commission also proposed renewing the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU, but said that it would reinforce protections “for sensitive EU agricultural products”.
An NGO criticised the move, arguing that it harms biodiversity and calling the proposal “another day of shame”.
Ahead of a key EU leaders’ summit tomorrow, pressure grew on Hungary to agree to a financial aid package for Ukraine.
The European parliament’s biggest political groups called on the heads of state and government to quickly approve financial assistance to Kyiv.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, called on citizens to reject the far right and made the case for a stronger European Union.
Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, said his embassy had been “subject to an attempted attack” and thanked the Swedish authorities for their swift response.
Stay tuned for our live blog tomorrow for updates from the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels.
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Farming lobby says EU commission proposal 'late' and 'limited'
Responding to the European Commission’s proposal today to provide an exemption to rules of fallow lands, the European farming lobby Copa and Cogeca said the move remained limited, calling on EU leaders to do more.
During the past few months, farmers across the EU have been severely impacted by extreme weather events and trade disruptions linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine all of which have had severe impact on farming activities and the food supply chain.
Consequently, this has created difficulties for farmers in the common agricultural policy (CAP) implementation, with repercussions for the 2024 agricultural year. Copa and Cogeca have repeatedly asked the European Commission to consider derogations from CAP conditionality (e.g. GAEC 6, 7 and 8), eco-schemes and agri-environment-climate commitments which build on these, for 2024. We called for a common action to address these severe difficulties.
Today, under pressure from the demonstrations, the president of the European Commission has announced a “one-year derogation from CAP rules on fallow lands”. Revised conditions for GAEC 8 were part of the greater flexibility expected by farmers.
Copa and Cogeca take note of this advance, but this decision comes late in the agricultural calendar and remains limited.
We hope that member states will further strengthen this proposal to have a more global approach especially in member states that have been particular impacted by extreme climate events, during the European Council meeting tomorrow.
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