As of: March 15, 2024, 5:34 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
Cem Özdemir (Bündnis90/The Greens), Federal Minister of Agriculture, speaks during a press conference.
© Martin Schutt/dpa
The months-long farmers' protests were about agricultural diesel, but also about excessive bureaucracy that farmers are suffering from.
Now the number of regulations is to be thinned out.
Erfurt - After the farmers' protests, the federal and state agriculture ministers have agreed to curb the chaos of regulations for agriculture and forestry in Germany.
The bureaucratic effort for farmers should be reduced and the first steps will be implemented by mid-2024, the chairwoman of the Conference of Agriculture Ministers, Thuringia's department head Susanna Karawanskij (Left), announced on Friday in Erfurt.
A schedule for this has been agreed with Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens).
“We should move forward quickly,” said Özdemir.
“Some things are already on the way.” Among other things, it is about abolishing multiple documentation requirements or contradictory regulations due to EU and federal requirements.
According to Karawanskij, the federal states have put a total of 194 proposals on the table, which the federal government is now examining and for which it is drawing up a list of priorities.
In addition, it is expected that new laws will not create new “bureaucratic monsters”.
Before the meeting, the German Farmers' Association had called for a reduction in bureaucracy.
“Our companies are overwhelmed by bureaucracy.
“This effort costs an immense amount of time and therefore money,” criticized association president Joachim Rukwied.
On the sidelines of the conference, farmers pointed out that there are different requirements in different laws when it comes to distance regulations for water protection, for example.
After the spring meeting of the agriculture ministers, Özdemir held out the prospect of further proposals to ease the burden on agricultural businesses.
There are discussions between the federal government and the coalition factions in the Bundestag about this.
He couldn't give details yet.
But he is confident that an agreement will be reached, said Özdemir.
On March 22nd, the Federal Council will again be discussing the Growth Opportunities Act.
After the mediation committee, the federal states made it clear that they expected proposals in favor of agriculture beforehand.
Saxony-Anhalt's Agriculture Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) said that he did not consider what the federal government had offered as an alternative to agricultural diesel to be sufficient.
Thuringia's department head Karawanskij expressed the expectation that biofuels and alternative drive technologies will be expanded more strongly.
“It’s also about tax relief for agricultural diesel,” she said.
The agriculture ministers of the federal states criticized what they considered to be insufficient financing for the restructuring of animal husbandry to improve animal welfare.
“We are concerned with long-term, reliable financing,” said Karawanskij.
Özdemir pointed out that a total of one billion euros has so far been made available for changes in pig farming.
“This can only be a beginning,” replied Brandenburg’s Agriculture Minister Axel Vogel (Greens).
dpa