The European Parliament recently voted on the Commission's proposal to amend some rules of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is expected to be announced by the end of May. Since this happens after the sowing period, the changes will affect the next economic year. The National Chamber of Agricultural Economics (NAK) and the Federation of Farmers' Cooperatives and Hungarian Farmers' Cooperatives (Magosz) welcome the simplifications, but in order to maintain our competitiveness and protect EU consumers, much bigger changes in EU policy are needed. The European Commission, according to their statement on Monday.
According to the two organizations, Member States will now have the opportunity to amend their rules, which may make it easier for agricultural producers as early as the application period in 2024. According to the new regulations, Member States can amend the KAP Strategic Plan twice every calendar year. However, according to NAK and Magosz, there is still significant scope for legislative simplification in the KAP rules, so they are confident that work will continue and that further simplification proposals may be decided in the coming months.
The EU regulation amendment package primarily affects Good Agricultural and Environmental Status (HMKÁ) requirements and exempts farmers from certain penalties.
Minimum ground cover requirements have also been simplified. They wrote that Hungary could take advantage of this opportunity in the case of areas used for rice or paddy cultivation. Accordingly, it is not necessary to fulfill the obligation of coverage in the current year without covering – in addition to ventilation, paving or leveling – the resting areas that were used for growing rice or Indian rice in the year preceding the current year.
The announcement said that easing of rules relating to crop rotation in arable land has also been achieved. An agricultural producer with more than ten hectares but not more than thirty hectares of arable land must grow at least two types of arable crops in a given year, and no single crop can occupy more than 75 percent of the total arable area. Farmers with more than thirty hectares of arable land must grow at least three types of crops, a single crop cannot occupy more than 75% of the total arable land, and the two largest crops grown together cannot exceed 95% of the land arable.
The amendment to the EU regulation also affects the rule for biodiversity conservation.
The European Commission proposal removed the obligation to designate non-productive areas from the regulation system, while the obligation to maintain protected landscape elements and prohibit cutting, pruning and mutilation of hedges and trees during the breeding and chick-rearing period will continue. included in the regulations.
