EU issued ecological focus areas rules

European Commission recently has issued a regulation (639/2014) on establishing rules for new “greening” measures that require farmers to adopt environmental practices in return for subsidies. The rules are due to start in 2015 as part of the revision of the EU Common Agricultural Policy .

Regulation 639/2014 lists further criteria to qualify the features and areas that can be applied as ecological focus areas (EFAs) by Member States. EU also mentions that those new criteria should ensure the farms’ safeguarding in order to meet the biodiversity objective. Thus, these EFAs may not be used for production, which will also avoid pesticides application and limit fertilizers application. Additionally, Member States should lay down rules that will avoid that the growing of nitrogen-fixing crops on EFAs, which would lead to increased nitrogen leaching and deteriorated water quality.

The latest regulation also cover rules for subsidy payments, designation and reconversion of environmentally sensitive permanent grassland areas and interpretation of the rules regarding crop diversification and the crops permitted in EFAs.