Euractiv reports that no fewer than 11 EU member states, including France, are seeking greater "flexibility" in the previously waived requirement to leave land fallow under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in a proposal that has left the European Commission puzzled.

Biodiversity Boost

Announced at an informal meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Spain in early September, the proposal for a derogation for fallow land, supported by France, was presented on Monday (20 November) to the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.

The idea is to allow the cultivation of crops on land to "maintain biodiversity and production objectives on the European continent," said French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau upon arriving in Brussels.

Under the current CAP program, which came into effect this year, farmers are theoretically required to dedicate 4% of their arable land to unproductive features, such as hedgerows, groves, and leverage lands, to meet Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC 8).

The threshold can be reduced to 3% if they include 4% of catch crops or nitrogen-fixing crops without pesticides to reach the 7% of biodiversity-friendly elements.

However, due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the urgent need to maintain Europe's food security, the EU Commission agreed to grant member states two annual derogations for cultivating these lands taken out of agricultural use, one in 2023 and one in 2022, under the previous CAP.

Partial Derogation

But when it comes to derogations, EU agricultural regulations are quite clear: they cannot exceed one year – meaning that, to receive subsidies under the new CAP, the unproductive lands will have to be brought back into production in 2024.

To circumvent this restriction, Fesneau, supported by about 10 EU countries, proposes a "partial application" of this eco-conditionality.

"The rate of 7% of biodiversity-friendly elements would be maintained, but farmers could achieve this rate without respecting the minimum rate of elements taken out of agricultural use or unproductive," he told his European counterparts.

In other words, the eco-conditionality would be maintained, but only catch crops and nitrogen-fixing crops would be required.

For the French minister, this "flexibility" measure would strengthen the EU's food security, offsetting the slowdown in Ukrainian grain exports and the drop in production by European farmers affected by extreme weather events in the last two years.

"It is imperative to continue supporting Europe's production potential. Cereal imports (wheat, barley, and maize) should reach 22 million tonnes in 2022, while this year we reached 40 million tonnes," emphasized Fesneau, calling for the bringing back under control of domestic production.

A Skeptical Commission

The initiative, cosigned by about 10 countries, was welcomed by most EU delegations. However, some countries want to go further by eliminating eco-conditionality or crop rotation (GAEC7) altogether, as proposed by Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida.

But while his Dutch counterpart Piet Adema suggests accelerating this process to apply for 2024, Germany's Cem Özdemir calls for "more information" to ensure that the overall ambition to protect biodiversity is maintained.

Things are less clear for the European Commission. After rejecting a complete derogation for the third year in August for regulatory reasons, Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski remained skeptical on Monday (20 November) about this new request, no matter how partial it may be.

In his view, derogations were justified in the last two years due to concerns about food safety in the EU and worldwide. Today, however, the "situation is very different."

"The market has returned to pre-war levels […] We are not in a critical situation in the EU or worldwide," he insisted, emphasizing that forecasts for protein and oilseed production volumes in the EU are stable.

For Wojciechowski, the concern now is falling prices, which could be exacerbated by increased agricultural production.

However, this proposal "is in line with what has already been granted, so the change cannot be made through a Commission implementing act but through a more comprehensive legislative transformation," he added, referring to the fact that another derogation would involve the European Parliament and EU ministers.

However, the commissioner promised to examine the proposal and assess its potential impact, especially on the market and farmers' incomes.