The European Union is soon to present a package of solutions that are intended to reduce farmers’ concerns about agricultural imports from Ukraine and the requirements of the Green Deal.
The European Commission is to present proposals for solutions that are to meet the needs of farmers protesting throughout Europe, an RMF FM correspondent in Brussels has established. The first changes are to come into force this year.
One of the most important proposals from Brussels for Polish farmers will be a complete abandonment of the obligation to leave 4% of land fallow. In addition, the rigors of applying crop rotation and winter soil cover, i.e. maintaining winter crops or stubble, are to be relaxed.
The EU will also exempt all farms up to 10 ha from environmental controls, which will be very important for Poland, because there are over 70% of such farms in our country. This means that farmers with farms smaller than 10 ha will not have their direct payments reduced for failing to meet climate and environmental standards. Brussels also intends to enable all member states to more frequently adjust their strategic plans based on the Common Agricultural Policy budget.
RMF FM also reported that next week the EC is to present a proposal to limit grain imports from Russia and Belarus to EU countries, but transit would still be allowed. It is possible that next week the final version of the agreement on duty-free trade with Ukraine will also be presented, which would be more beneficial for Polish farmers. This involves covering Ukrainian products – such as grain or honey – with import restrictions and setting lower quotas than the EC proposed, which would be based on the reference year 2021, and not on the basis of high Ukrainian imports from 2022-2023.