Significant concerns voiced by the NFU on aspects of the European Commission’s "greening" proposals deserve further consideration according to a Commission compromise paper to be discussed tomorrow.
The paper has been tabled ahead of this week’s debate in Agriculture Council on proposals to "green" the direct payments.
NFU President Peter Kendall said: "We have been very critical of the European Commission’s proposed ’greening’ of the Common Agricultural Policy so the fact that the Commission is now taking steps to address our concerns is good news.
"The Commissioner was clear when he addressed the NFU conference in February that farmers in agri-environment schemes should not be penalised by the introduction of these greening measures. It’s therefore good news to see that in principle that participation in an agri-environment scheme would be considered as equivalent to fulfilling at least one of the measures, but how this would work in practice is far from clear.
"Extending the definition of permanent grassland to areas out of the crop rotation for eight years or longer also goes some way to addressing our concerns, as will the concessions aimed at smaller producers on crop diversification.
However, the Commission’s paper is still silent on the proposals to set-aside seven per cent of arable land for ecological focus areas and I am still concerned that this will inevitably lead to productive land being set-aside from production to meet this requirement at a time when we are being asked to grow more food.
Equally the crop diversification measure will continue to penalise many farmers and will ultimately reduce the industry’s market orientation and profitability.
"The Commission is clearly willing to consider changes to its proposals to ensure they are a better fit with the reality of different farming systems across Europe, but we have a very long way to go yet. The NFU will continue to work with all decision makers to ensure that our members’ concerns are considered before any of these proposals reach the statute book."
