Ursual von der Leyen has scrapped plans to introduce a law that would have clamped down on the way pesticides are used in farming.
The controversial Sustainable Use Regulation (SUR) which was first tabled in June of 2022 sought to reduce the use of pesticides by half by 2030.
Last year the bill was rejected in the European Parliament with 299 votes in favour, 207 against and 121 abstentions.
Speaking before the European Parliament von der Leyen said “The Commission proposed SUR, with the worthy aim to reduce the risks of chemical plant protection products,”
“But the SUR proposal has become a symbol of polarisation. It has been rejected by the European Parliament. There is no progress anymore in the Council either. That is why I will propose to the College to withdraw this proposal.” she added.
Von der Leyen said that “Effective nature protection must offer generous incentives” adding that “only if farmers can live off the land will they invest in the future.”
She said that farmers will only be able to make a living off the land if “our climate & environment goals” are realised.
The withdrawal of the planned implementation of the SUR comes amid wide spread farmer protests which in recent weeks have been happening across the EU with farmers in The Netherlands, Ireland, France, Romania, Scotland, Poland, Lithuania, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal taking to the streets.
At home farmers have said that they feel green policies are facilitating “farmer bashing” and that while their chief concern is feeding 40,000,000 people worldwide they are being unfairly blamed as being a leader cause of environmental damage.
Speaking to Gript former ICSA president Dermot Kennedy said that in his almost 50 years of farming the size of the national herd has remained stable while the number of cars has exploded.
He questioned why his cows were “to blame” when other industries were not being asked to curtail output in order to meet climate goals.
The withdrawal from the SUR must now be ratified by the College of Commissioners which is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.
Writing for the European Conservative, journalist Tamás Orbán said that the move does not mean that the EU has let farmers off the hook.
In reference to EU Commission plans to push for a 90% overall reduction of CO2 (compared to the 1990 levels) by 2040 he quoted an EU Parliament source saying:
“Despite all the semantics in the [Commission] there is an unequivocal Impact Assessment making a very compelling (business) case for an ambitious headline target and all sub-targets for sectors,” one official said, pointing at the Commission’s implementation analysis that will accompany the revised targets.
“According to this technical assessment that will also be published later on Tuesday, the 90% overall CO2 reduction goal cannot be achieved without substantial cuts in agriculture as well. In practice, this means that the Commission did not truly let farmers off the hook, but only passed the ball to the member states who, in turn, will have to decide on climate measures that potentially hurt them just to comply with the overall reduction goal.” he wrote
Irish farmers told Gript they feel the EU’s policies will be severely detrimental to the longevity of their industry going forward.
Irish farmers say their industry is being unfairly targeted by green policies while MEP says nitrous oxide is 290 times more pollutant than methane. pic.twitter.com/u2GnEOYwn1
— gript (@griptmedia) February 6, 2024