Next week, the European Commission will present new legislative proposals to meet the demands of protesting farmers. This was stated by the European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski in an interview with RMF FM in Brussels.
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According to him, the European Commission is committed that this year there will be no penalties for farmers who do not comply with environmental or climate standards.
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This means that their direct payments will not decrease. However, in 2025-2027, that is, by the end of the budget period, changes will be made to soften the existing requirements of the European Green Deal. These will be legislative decisions.
“This will be a package of decisions that should free farmers from all worries, not so much about the Green Deal, but about its elements that are included in the Common Agricultural Policy,” Wojciechowski said.< /p>
The package will include a complete waiver of the mandatory 4 percent landscaping. The latest proposal from the European Commission provided for only a partial exemption from this obligation.
Farmers will still be able to leave fallow land, but this will be a voluntary action for which they will be additionally rewarded.
Solutions will also be found to ease the strictness of crop rotation and the obligation to use winter cover. The new proposal will be more flexible and, for example, each country will be able to choose the period for applying crop rotation.
On the other hand, farms of up to 10 hectares will be exempt from checks for compliance with environmental requirements. Consequently, farmers will not be fined for their non-compliance. And in Poland, farms up to 10 hectares in size account for three quarters of all farms.
Commissioner Wojciechowski also proposes expanding the possibility of providing state aid to farmers. We are talking about assistance authorized by the European Commission in connection with the war in Ukraine. Now farmers have received 4 billion euros of such support.
Recall
The Ministry of Finance wrote that Polish farmers reported that they were continuing protests on the border with Ukraine until April 30.
< p>Since February 9, 2024, on the territory of Poland near the border with Ukraine, protests by farmers have continued on the roads leading to checkpoints.
The main demands of the protesters are a ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products and Poland’s refusal of the European Green Deal.< /p>