EU publishes farming sector reform 'vision' which aims to cut red tape
and redistribute subsidies
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 [February 20, 2025] By
RAF CASERT
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's executive on Wednesday heeded the
call of activist agricultural organizations and the complaints of
hard-right parties by proposing a vision for the future of farming and
food production that aims to cut deep into the complicated rules
designed to protect the environment.
The blueprint, which seek to better protect local production from what
is seen as unfair global competition, come after a year which saw
protests by disgruntled farmers using tractors to paralyze many European
capitals as part of a campaign lionized by the far right in the runup to
their successful showing in EU-wide elections last June.
Under the EU's Vision for Agriculture and Food, the annual budget of
some 50 billion euros ($50 billion) should be spread more equitably
instead of the current system where around 80% of subsidies go to the
richest 20% of the agrobusiness. “This is not fair,” said EU Farm
Commissioner Christophe Hansen, who aims for more funds to got to small
family farms and young people trying to establish themselves in the
rapidly aging sector.
Even though agriculture in the 27-nation bloc is still a massive
industrial business, farmers complain that reams of unnecessary rules
keep them off the land and locked their office to meet the demands of
bureaucracy.
Red tape was often seized by the far right over the past year to claim
that it only fuels unrealistic EU climate goals that are the creation of
elitist politicians who have lost any feeling for soil and land.
‘More farming, fewer forms’
The Commission said it will publish a legislative package to simplify
current rules for the agricultural sector to reduce administrative
burden for farmers.
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 “One prerequisite of competitiveness
is less bureaucracy,” said Hansen, who noted it was a major driver
of the farmer protests across the bloc. “Lighter and more agile
policy is a must,” he said, adding: “More farming, fewer forms to
fill in.”
Environmentalists, and many farmers, see the cutting of red tape as
a relaxing of environmental rules that are necessary to protect the
continent against climate change. Many climate activists also rue
the fact that the bloc does not drastically steps away from a
production which will continue to have a large bio industrial base
with a vast meat footprint.
“EU farm policy pays massive amounts of public
money to a model of farming that eats away at nature, rewards
billionaire land-owners, puts small farms out of business and
hollows out rural communities,” said Greenpeace farm policy director
Marco Contiero. "This is the Commission’s tunnel vision on farming,
unwilling to change course even as our food system crumbles.”
'Stronger alignment of production standards'
Farmers have also criticized EU trade negotiators for striking deals
with foreign nations in Asia and Latin America which they say allows
them to import many foodstuffs containing substances deemed illegal
in the EU and farm practices that are outlawed in the bloc.
Under the EU Vision project, the bloc “will pursue a stronger
alignment of production standards applied to imported products,
notably on pesticides and animal welfare.”
“As a principle, the most hazardous pesticides banned in the EU for
health and environmental reasons should not be allowed back to the
EU through imported products,” the EU said in a statement.
The blueprint on announced on Wednesday requires approval by member
states before it can be put in practice.
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