EP approves simpler rules and more support for farmers

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Under the legislation, small farms will be able to receive up to €3,000 in annual financial support, as well as an additional one-off business development payment of up to €75,000. In order to preserve biodiversity and to spare farmers the costly and labour-intensive task of ploughing their land, the new rules ensure that from 1 January 2026, land classified as arable land will continue to retain this designation, even if it has not been ploughed, cultivated or re-sown. Farmers with organic certification will automatically comply with the Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) requirements for those parts of their holdings where they are already organic or in conversion.

Member States may limit this simplification if the checks would impose a high administrative burden

The checks will be carried out on the basis of the so-called ‘once-only’ principle, meaning that farmers will not have to undergo more than one official on-the-spot check in a given year. MEPs also approved, by 431 votes to 161 with 70 abstentions, the safeguard clause in the EU-Mercosur agreement, which prevents imports from the countries of the South American Common Market – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, which has been suspended since 2016 – from harming Europe’s agricultural sector. The draft regulation states that the EU could temporarily suspend tariff preferences for imports of certain agricultural products considered sensitive – such as poultry or beef – from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, if these goods would have a detrimental effect on EU producers. According to the EU Parliament, the European Commission should launch an investigation into the need for safeguard measures if imports of sensitive agricultural products increase by an average of 5% over three consecutive years. The EP also adopted an amendment according to which the European Commission would launch an investigation and take safeguard measures if there is credible evidence that imports benefiting from tariff preferences do not comply with environmental, animal welfare, health, food safety or labour standards applicable to EU producers.

MTI