Europe live: Brussels recommends delay to ‘set-aside’ rules which have fuelled farmers’ protests – as it happened | France

• Farmers continued protesting in France and Belgium.

• The European Commission, responding to pressure, proposed to allow EU farmers exemptions this year from Common Agricultural Policy rules obliging them to keep certain areas non-productive.

• The European farming lobby said “this decision comes late in the agricultural calendar and remains limited,” calling on EU leaders to do more.

• The Commission also proposed renewing the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU, but said that it would reinforce protections “for sensitive EU agricultural products”.

• An NGO criticised the move, arguing that it harms biodiversity and calling the proposal “another day of shame”.

• Ahead of a key EU leaders’ summit tomorrow, pressure grew on Hungary to agree to a financial aid package for Ukraine.

• The European parliament’s biggest political groups called on the heads of state and government to quickly approve financial assistance to Kyiv.

• The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, called on citizens to reject the far right and made the case for a stronger European Union.

• Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, said his embassy had been “subject to an attempted attack” and thanked the Swedish authorities for their swift response.

Stay tuned for our live blog tomorrow for updates from the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels.

Responding to the European Commission’s proposal today to provide an exemption to rules of fallow lands, European farming lobby Copa and Cogeca said the move remains limited, calling on EU leaders to do more.

During the past few months, farmers across the EU have been severely impacted by extreme weather events and trade disruptions linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine all of which have had severe impact on farming activities and the food supply chain.

Consequently, this has created difficulties for farmers in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) implementation, with repercussions for the 2024 agricultural year. Copa and Cogeca have repeatedly asked the European Commission to consider derogations from CAP conditionality (e.g. GAEC 6, 7 and 8), eco-schemes and agri-environment-climate commitments which build on these, for 2024. We called for a common action to address these severe difficulties.

Today, under pressure from the demonstrations, the President of the European Commission has announced a “one-year derogation from CAP rules on fallow lands”. Revised conditions for GAEC 8 were part of the greater flexibility expected by farmers.

Copa and Cogeca take note of this advance, but this decision comes late in the agricultural calendar and remains limited.

We hope that Member States will further strengthen this proposal to have a more global approach especially in Members States that have been particular impacted by extreme climate events, during the European Council meeting tomorrow.

Ariel Brunner, director at BirdLife Europe, said today that it is “another day of shame” as the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, “caves in.”

He argued the Commission proposal exempting farmers from rules on fallow lands “allows destroying flowerstrips and fallows again -it won’t increase production but if it did it would just depress prices further.”

The proposal, he said, “further locks farmers into dependency on chemical industry” and “harms biodiversity, increases floods etc.”

Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, said his embassy had been “subject to an attempted attack” and thanked the Swedish authorities for their swift response.

A suspicious object was found outside the embassy. Police said they believed it to be an explosive device and that it would be destroyed.

“We will not be intimidated by terror,” Kulman said.

As farmers’ protests continue in various European countries, there is a growing discussion about imports from Ukraine.

The European Commission proposed renewing the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU on Wednesday, but also said that it would reinforce protections “for sensitive EU agricultural products”.

So-called Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs) for Ukraine has been in place since June 2022.

The commission said in a statement:

While the main objective of the ATMs is to support Ukraine, the measures are also mindful of EU farmers’ and other stakeholders’ sensitivities.

To this end, and considering a significant increase in imports of some agricultural products from Ukraine to the EU in 2022 and 2023, the renewed ATMs contain a reinforced safeguard mechanism. This makes sure that quick remedial action can be taken in case of significant disruptions to the EU market, or to the markets of one or more Member States.

For the most sensitive products – poultry, eggs and sugar – an emergency brake is foreseen which would stabilise imports at the average import volumes in 2022 and 2023.

This means that if imports of these products were exceeding those volumes, tariffs would be reimposed to ensure that import volumes do not significantly exceed those of previous years.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has called on citizens to reject the far right and made the case for a stronger European Union.

“The word ‘remigration’ is reminiscent of the darkest times in German history,” Scholz said, according to Reuters.

He also argued that leaving the EU would lead to “the greatest destruction of prosperity that could happen to Germany and Europe”.

If the world becomes even more difficult, for example if you look at what is possible in the US election, then the European Union must become all the stronger.

Leaders from the EU’s 27 member states are gathering for a summit on Thursday.

A key issue will be financial aid to Ukraine, as leaders seek to convince Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to agree to a long-term assistance package.

In a letter to the leaders, the European Council president, Charles Michel, stressed the need to come to an agreement on amending the bloc’s long-term budget, which is known as the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) and runs until 2027.

Securing agreement is vital for our credibility, and not least for our commitment to provide steadfast support to Ukraine. The onus lies squarely on us to find a solution and to deliver.

He also underscored the importance of military assistance to Kyiv.

Given the circumstances, we will also take this opportunity to further urgently address all aspects of our military assistance to Ukraine. This includes the delivery of ammunition, in line with our March 2023 European Council conclusions, and adjusting relevant EU instruments to deliver aid faster, while complementing bilateral efforts.

To achieve this, we have to continue our donations, adapt orders and place new ones – which will also boost our European defence industry.

He also the leaders would discuss the situation in the Middle East.

The dramatic events in the Middle East demand our utmost focus. All hostages detained by Hamas have to be released without any pre-conditions. Our discussion should be framed around a number of key issues. In light of worrying regional developments, we need to address security issues, continue encouraging restraint and discuss measures to prevent further regional escalation, especially in the Red Sea.

In addition, we must urgently contribute to remedying the devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Lastly, we should discuss how to revive the political process for a two-state solution – the only viable option that can bring sustainable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians and enhanced regional security. Overall, our efforts should aim at ensuring that international law and international humanitarian law are upheld by all.

Ahead of tomorrow’s summit of EU leaders in Brussels, the European parliament’s biggest political groups have called on the heads of state and government to quickly approve financial assistance to Kyiv.

Russia shows no signs of stopping its war of aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, the EU must show no signs of stopping its support to Ukraine. Those who doubt our resolve and undermine our unity must be proven wrong.

We urge the European Council and the member states to live up to their promises, ensure effective and sustainable long-term military support to Ukraine and to step up the efforts to deliver the ammunition and military support that the Ukrainian defence forces so urgently need.

We expect the European Council to agree on the economic and financial support proposed under the Ukraine facility that will help Ukraine maintain essential services to its citizens, such as schools, hospitals and social security, and will support the country’s economic and social recovery and reconstruction.

Further delays or annual vetoes are not an option.

The statement was signed by Manfred Weber, the chair centre-right European People’s party group; Iratxe Garcia Pérez, the chair of the Socialists and Democrats group; Valérie Hayer, chair of the Renew Europe group; Terry Reintke and Philippe Lamberts, the co-chairs of the Greens; and Ryszard Antoni Legutko and Nicola Procaccini, the co-chairs of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.

Lisa O’Carroll

In summary, here’s what has just happened in Brussels:

Farmers have won their first concessions from the EU after weeks of protests across France, Germany, Belgium and Italy.

EU leaders will be asked to sign off on a European Commission proposal to delay a rule requiring farmers to set aside between 4% and 7% of their land as fallow as part of an effort to restore soil health and increase biodiversity.

That rule will not now come into effect until 2025.

Lisa O’Carroll

Asked if the derogation of the set-aside rule would be enough to placate farmers who are protesting, also against what they see as a burden of new EU regulation coming down the tracks, Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission executive vice-president, was blunt.

“We have to make sure that Europe will become a continent which will be habitable also in the future,” he said.

He said the new nature restoration laws along with moves to prevent floods, fires and other weather-related disasters, were designed to ensure “farmers can have healthy crops and they have solid incomes”.

With an eye perhaps on the link being made between the radical rightwing political parties and the nature restoration laws, he admitted that the dialogue with farmers “had to intensify”.

“We have to avoid the polarisation which is making any good conversation and discussion more difficult. Therefore, I would say we see our relationship with the farmers as one of clear political priorities for the commission,” he said.

The press conference is now over.

Lisa O’Carroll

Šefčovič is being asked again why the EU has taken the decision now. Was it really because of farmer protests?

He tells reporters it is because of the “combination of factors” he has described , and that the “economics of agriculture” has also been hit by high energy prices.

“We feel we are obliged to act under this pressure, which [the] farming community [is feeling],” he said, adding that the idea behind the set-aside rule was to promote the regeneration of healthy soil.

Under the rules farmers can leave land fallow or grow nitrogen-fixing crops such as lentils.

Lisa O’Carroll

Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s executive vice-president responsible for the European green deal, is making a passionate defence of farmers at a briefing with reporters.

He said the decision to delay the set-aside rule was taken because farmers had had an exceptionally tough year as a result of floods, wildfires and exceptional heatwave and droughts linked to climate change last summer.

“We have had a number of extreme meteorological events, droughts flooding in various parts of the Europe and there was a clear negative effect on the output on the revenue, and of course, decreased income for the farmers and it created heavy pressures on farmers,” he said.

“I met with the president of Andalusia, he was telling me that the water reservoirs are at 20% level or in some parts of Andalusia 4%. What kind of dramatic changes does that require to sustain the agriculture and economic model? What kind of percentages are lost in the GDP? Let’s look at Greece. The whole agriculture sector because of the fires and floods was, if I’m not mistaken, more than 20% of the annual revenue.”

Šefčovič told reporters the value of cereal production had dropped by 30%.

Farmers’ lobby says family farming ‘in danger’

Ajit Niranjan

“The survival of European family farming as it is known today is in danger,” Europe’s biggest farming lobby said on Wednesday.

In an open letter to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, lobby group Copa Cogeca blamed the protests on farmers not being heard.

Economic burdens and bureaucracy are strangling farmers across the EU. Across the EU, the effects of climatic and geopolitical crises are impacting our farms considerably. And all this with the feeling that more constraints and more European regulations are going to be imposed on farms, with severe and irreversible consequences on production, income and increase of imports with less environmental and social standards.

Efforts to curb pollution or make farmers pay more for fuel such as diesel have sparked protests in several European countries in recent weeks. The EU spends about a third of its budget on its common agricultural policy, mostly in the form of direct payment to farmers, and the sector does not have to pay the costs of its planet-heating pollution.

Scientists, meanwhile, have warned of worsening crop failures and yield losses as Europe heats up and its wildlife dies out.

The latest round of protests comes just a week after Von der Leyen launched a “strategic dialogue on the future of EU agriculture”.

Copa Cogeca said it welcomed the long-term discussion but called for short-term answers on environmental rules and trade. The group singled out the Mercosur free-trade agreement between several South American countries as unacceptable for most EU farmers.

At this moment, a continuous push for getting the deal across the line will be perceived as a further provocation by the farming community, and will increase the rejection for decisions taken by the European Commission.

Commission says proposed delay for set-aside rule a ‘helping hand’ for farmers

Lisa O’Carroll

Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president responsible for environmental policymaking, said the delay until 2025 of a new set-aside rule for farmers was “a helping hand’ for the sector at a difficult time.

He said:

In recent months and years, European farmers have found themselves under increasing pressure from many sides, climate change and the loss of biodiversity combined with geopolitical turmoil and soaring energy prices.

He also said they were facing higher production costs and a squeezing of revenues.

“For instance, the value of cereal production in the European Union dropped by nearly 30% in 2023,” he said.

The Commission believes that by taking the stabilising action, we can help alleviate the pressure that we know our farmers are feeling in order to ensure that they can stay economically viable during these times of high uncertainty.

The proposal has to be approved by member states.

“The ball is now in the courts of the member states who must decide whether to turn our proposal into reality. If so, the derogation would apply retroactively, as of January 2024,” said Šefčovič.