Agriculture ministers discussed the current crisis and challenges

Against the backdrop of ongoing farmers' protests and based on information from the Belgian presidency and a non-paper on simplification prepared by the European Commission, agriculture ministers discussed the current crisis and challenges in the sector.

The Council confirmed its political will to respond effectively to the concerns of farmers and, as a first step, agreed on a set of concrete measures that should be a priority for the short-term response to the current crisis, and offered political guidance for the way forward and for a structural approach in the medium and long term.

The priorities for simplification measures we agreed on will reduce the administrative burden on farmers and give them the flexibility they need. We are also looking ahead to the future, to improve farmers' position in the food supply chain, while ensuring we respect our environmental sustainability commitments.

During its meeting, the Council welcomed recent decisions announced by the Commission such as:

• the partial exemption from rules on land lying fallow,
• the so-called good agricultural and environmental condition standard 8 (GAEC 8),
• the withdrawal of the proposal for a regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides (SUR),
• and the additional safeguards in the proposed renewal of the autonomous trade measures for imports from Ukraine.

As part of their exchange of views the Council discussed the short-term measures aimed at simplification and reducing the administrative burden farmers are facing and stressed that the EU should react to the farmers' concerns.

Among the actions agreed upon by the Council we have:

• Changes to the rules on the GAEC 1 standard, which imposes a requirement to keep areas of permanent grassland stable compared to the reference year 2018. Under GAEC 1, former livestock farmers with large areas of grassland who had been forced by market disturbances in the meat and dairy sector to shift to arable crop production could be asked to reconvert their arable land into permanent grassland. This could lead to a loss of income for those farmers. Therefore, the Council welcomed the proposal by the Commission to amend the GAEC 1 rules by mid-March to ensure that structural changes caused by a reduction in livestock are taken into account and that farmers without livestock are not obliged to reconvert arable land to pasture or grassland.
• GAEC 6: the Council invited the Commission to review the practices that are possible to cover soils, in order to take into account regional characteristics, so that farmers can benefit from increased flexibility. The Commission will review this possibility and submit guidelines in April.
• Upcoming review of the methodology for assessing the quality of the Area Monitoring System (AMS). The AMS is a system based on the automated analysis of satellite imagery from Copernicus. This revision, due in March 2024, will significantly help reduce the number of on-farm visits by national administrations, in some cases by 50% or more.
• To publish an explanatory note to explain and clarify the use of the so-called force majeure or exceptional circumstances concept.This concept ensures that farmers who cannot fulfil all their CAP requirements due to exceptional and unforeseeable events outside of their control (such as in cases of severe droughts or floods) do not have penalties imposed on them. The publication of this note was well-received by agriculture ministers, who had previously stressed the importance of improving communication with farmers and ensuring that they have adequate information about CAP support.

Aside from these short-term actions aimed at simplifying the day-to-day life of farmers and reducing the administrative burden for farmers and national administrations alike, ministers stressed that a long-term approach is also necessary. The Council therefore insisted to examine ways of improving the situation of farmers in the mid- to long-term, including their position in the food supply chain.

The Council also insisted that a review of the basic acts of the Common Agricultural Policy is necessary. This review should be initiated as soon as possible.