The European Commission has announced a new extension of the derogation from the rule of the common agricultural policy (CAP) which provides that to access community aid farmers must leave certain amounts of fallow land.
This was announced by the vice-president of the community executive Margaritis Schinas at a press conference.
The one linked to fallow land is one of the measures to make the agri-food sector sustainable against which, however, farmers are protesting by lining up tractors on the streets of various European cities.
The community executive proposes in particular to allow EU farmers to take advantage of derogations for 2024 from the rules of the common agricultural policy which oblige them to maintain certain non-productive areas.
To receive CAP support, farmers must meet a strengthened set of nine environmentally and climate-friendly standards.
This principle of cross-compliance applies to almost 90% of the used agricultural area in the EU and plays an important role in the integration of sustainable agricultural practices.
The 'good agricultural and environmental conditions' standard requires dedicating a minimum amount of arable land to non-productive areas or features, typically uncultivated land but also to features such as hedges or trees.
Farms with less than ten hectares of arable land are generally exempt from this obligation.
Today the Commission offers the possibility to all EU farmers to be exempt from this requirement and to continue to be entitled to the basic direct payment of the CAP: instead of keeping the land fallow or unproductive on 4% of their arable land, farmers EU countries that grow nitrogen-fixing crops (such as lentils, peas or broad beans) and/or catch crops on 7% of their arable land will be considered to comply with the requirements.
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