The European Commission has accepted the proposal from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to implement Eco-scheme PD-04 "Environmentally beneficial practices applicable to arable land" for the 2024 application year.

The proposal aims to adapt the mandatory general requirements of the eco-scheme to the derogation from the requirements of the standard GAEC 8, applicable for the 2024 application year.

Farmers will be able to benefit from the payment granted through the eco-scheme more easily and will have the option to choose how the allocated share of unproductive land (5%) will be occupied with:

- unproductive areas and characteristics, including fallow land; and/or

- nitrogen-fixing crops; and/or

- secondary crops.

This option can be correlated with the farmer's decision to comply with the basic requirement of GAEC8, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2024/587. For the 4% share of arable land at the farm level, the farmer may opt for the mentioned variants with the specification that, when nitrogen-fixing crops or secondary crops are established, plant protection products will not be used.

In case of a difference in area between the GAEC basic requirement and the eco-scheme requirement, the use of plant protection products will be allowed.

In this regard, for the year 2024 when accessing Eco-scheme PD-04, farmers will not be required to simultaneously comply with the first 2 mandatory general conditions (reserving 5% of arable land for unproductive elements and 5% for nitrogen-fixing) having the benefit of choosing one of the three aforementioned mandatory general conditions.