(new: last two paragraphs on indication of origin added)
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – In the coming years, organic farming in Germany should benefit more from EU agricultural subsidies worth billions than before. The strategic plan required for this should be submitted to the responsible EU Commission on Monday, as Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens) said on the sidelines of a meeting with his EU colleagues in Brussels. “That means planning security for our farmers.” However, nature conservation organizations criticized the plans for the years 2023 to 2027 as insufficient.
Özdemir emphasized that with this step, a legacy of the previous federal government would be processed. Because Germany was already behind schedule with the plan. The deadline for submission was January 1st. Özdemir had last justified the delay with the change of government in December.
The strategic plans are part of a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that the EU states and the European Parliament agreed on last year. With a volume of almost 390 billion euros for the years 2021 to 2027, it is the largest single item in the EU budget. The Ministry of Agriculture also makes the dimension and impact of agricultural policy on farmers and consumers clear: “The range of funding has an impact on the lives of around 40 million people in rural areas and is relevant in the agricultural sector for around 300,000 applicant companies.”
One of the aims of the EU agricultural reform is to make food production more environmentally friendly. How the individual countries implement this is to be set out in the strategic plans that have to be approved by the EU Commission.
“In the last few meters we were able to get a lot out of organic farming,” said Özdemir, according to a statement. In Brussels, he emphasized that in the years 2023 to 2027 every second euro of the available 30 billion euros would be spent “for the climate, for the environment and for species protection”. Organic farms could earn money with voluntary services for the climate and the environment.
In addition, the goal of 30 percent organic farming by 2030 has been included in the strategic plan. Organic farming should be promoted with half a billion a year. “The funding priorities are being reset – and organic farming is coming into focus,” said Özdemir. He assumes that the EU Commission will quickly approve the plan. The authority can now send comments on the German plan to Berlin within three months, on the basis of which the document must be revised. After a maximum of three more months, the EU Commission would then have to approve the plan.
However, the German Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation (Bund) and the German Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) consider the German projects to be inadequate. They missed “the goals for climate protection, the restoration of biodiversity, the expansion of organic farming and the conversion of livestock farming,” said the associations. It is assumed that the EU Commission will not approve the strategic plan. “Neither the ambitious goals of the EU Green Deal nor the coalition agreement can be achieved with this plan.”
The working group for rural agriculture (AbL) advocated on Monday, among other things, that smaller farms should receive higher premiums for additional voluntary environmental measures (so-called eco-regulations). In this way, the financial loss of the farmers in the direct payments can be compensated for, which the AbL believes is imminent.
Özdemir also used the meeting to introduce an initiative on the subject of “fair income for farmers” together with his colleague from Austria, Elisabeth Köstinger. The EU Commission should therefore quickly present a legislative proposal for mandatory EU-wide labeling of the origin of food.
“On the one hand, it’s about us working to ensure that the farmers have a reasonable source of income,” said Özdemir. On the other hand, consumers need to know where the products come from. The initiative aims to extend the already mandatory labeling of origin to products such as milk and milk as an ingredient, meat as an ingredient, rice or tomatoes in certain tomato products./wim/DP/eas