Farmers have recently wrested concessions from the EU with their protests. The Greens find this dangerous – and are calling for fundamental reforms.
In a position paper, the Greens oppose the significant concessions that the EU Commission made to farmers after the massive farmers’ protests. They are also calling for far-reaching reforms in the EU’s common agricultural policy, such as the abolition of area-based direct payments.
“Ursula von der Leyen started as Commission President with big words about the Green Deal,” said Green Party leader Britta Haßelmann t-online. Now she has caved in. “This is harmful to our environment – and to our local agriculture.” Healthy soils and species protection are the survival insurance of agriculture. Lowering environmental standards is not a sustainable approach.
The EU Commission recently accommodated the protesting farmers with various exceptions. For example, they should not have to declare a minimum proportion of fallow land until 2027. The EU states should be given more leeway when it comes to the requirements for the cultivation of catch crops, and companies should be allowed to convert more meadow areas into arable land.
“Must not be the measure”
The Greens continued to fight for the “full implementation” of the Green Deal and the Farm-to-Fork strategy, according to the position paper that the Bundestag parliamentary group adopted and which is available to t-online. We “clearly reject” any departure from the goals. It is “absolutely necessary to consistently pursue the goals of reducing pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics.”
“Instead of rolling back to the 1990s, there must finally be answers to the real problems in agriculture,” said agricultural policy spokeswoman Renate Künast t-online. “The interests of individual groups should not be the deciding factor. Insisting on maximum demands, as we saw in the farmers’ protests, does not get anyone to their goal.”
The Greens are committed to reforming the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) accordingly for the next funding period from 2027. A lot of money is involved: at around 55 billion euros annually, the CAP is the largest single item in the EU budget, almost a third of the total budget. Around 75 percent of the money goes to farmers as direct payments.
Area-based direct payments should be eliminated
The amount of these direct payments depends largely on the area cultivated: the larger the farm, the more money there is. The Greens now want to change that, not gradually, as is being discussed – but completely from 2027.
“The area-based direct payments should be abolished,” said Künast. “According to the maxim ‘public money for public services’, agriculture must be rewarded and motivated to protect the environment and climate and thus its own business bases.”
According to the Greens’ ideas, companies should be able to increase their income in the future with services for climate, environmental and animal protection. The switch to environmentally friendly cultivation and working methods must be worthwhile for small and large farms, said parliamentary group leader Haßelmann. “It is time to transform the Common Agricultural Policy in favor of environmentally friendly agriculture.”
Instead of dismantling environmental standards in order to relieve farmers of bureaucracy, the Greens want to advocate for a “clear and simple architecture of the CAP”, as the position paper states: “Low bureaucracy and low-administration solutions when applying for, processing, paying out and controlling the CAP – Funds are a priority and our goal.”
