Stephen Cadogan: EU industry gets green rule rollbacks — will farmers get the same?
The commission has risked the wrath of environmental organisations, with right-wing parties leading a backlash against green policies. Picture: Nicolas Tucat / AFP via Getty
European farmers will expect a generous simplification package for their sector to match last week's European Commission proposal, which aimed to scrap many requirements of industries to disclose their impact on the environment.
Four out of five companies would be exempted from mandatory sustainability disclosure requirements. The corporate sustainability due diligence directive, which holds companies accountable for human right violations and environmental damage in their supply chains, would be significantly watered down.
Changes to the carbon border adjustment mechanism would exempt 90% of importers of goods covered by this new tax.
The proposals, which need European Parliament and Council of the EU approval to become law, have given farmers hope for equally generous treatment when the agriculture commissioner's simplification package for the agri-food sector is announced later in the spring.
The commission has risked the wrath of environmental organisations — who said the proposed changes for industries are a U-turn from more than 10 years of sustainability work and are partly driven by shifting political dynamics at EU, national, and international level — with right-wing parties leading a backlash against green policies.
For example, the World Wide Fund For Nature's EU office said there is a clear move away from the green commitments that were a cornerstone of Ursula von der Leyen’s previous mandate as president of the European Commission.
Now, the commission had a "sudden urge to destroy laws that are crucial for the achievement of the EU Green Deal".
However, the European Commission says it is trying to boost the competitiveness of EU industry.
Its proposal would directly save businesses around €6.3bn in administrative costs, and “mobilise additional public and private investment capacity of €50bn”.
Germany's industry associations called the proposals an important first step in the right direction — hardly surprising in a country where one of the world’s most climate-ambitious governments has fallen, replaced by a likely chancellor who says green policy went too far.
Are environmentalist organisations over-reacting, as usual, or is the EU really undoing its green deal which required the agri-food sector to halve pesticide use by 2030; reduce nutrient loss by at least 50% and the use of fertilisers at least 20%, by 2030; reduce sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals and in aquaculture 50%, by 2030; increase the land under organic farming from 8% in 2018 to 25% by 2030; put at least 10% of farmland under high diversity landscape features by 2030; and restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050, required of member states by legally binding Nature Restoration Law?
Already, a year ago, the commission withdrew its sustainable use regulation, delaying by years action to reduce the use and risks of synthetic pesticides. It was defeated by a political backlash amid widespread farmer protests.
However, there seems little let-up yet for Irish farmers on the ground — with implementation of new EU peatland protection rules the latest imposition on top of new veterinary medicine and nitrates rules.
They can only hope that the generous simplification package for industries means that environmental considerations are no longer the central focus they were in EU policy.
