EU proposes curbing more green rules on farming subsidies

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission proposed weakening more of the environmental conditions tied to the EU's huge farming subsidy programme on Wednesday, as part of plans to cut back regulations and paperwork for farmers.

Farmers across Europe wielded their political clout last year when they staged months of protests over issues including strict EU regulations and cheap imports. In response, the EU diluted some green conditions attached to farming subsidies.

The Commission announced plans on Wednesday to go further, in changes to green conditions and other rules it said could overall save farmers up to 1.58 billion euros per year, and limit on-site checks on farms to once per year.

The EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of farming subsidies is worth around 387 billion euros, around a third of the bloc's total 2021-2027 budget.

Smaller farmers would be exempted from baseline requirements tying their subsidies to efforts to protect the environment, and the EU would also double, to 2,500 euros, the limit on annual lump-sum payments they can receive.

"The Commission is on farmers' side, and we are doing our best to cut the bureaucracy so they can focus on what they do best; producing food for all of us while protecting our natural resources," EU agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen said.

Other changes would let farms remove 10%, rather than 5%, of permanent grasslands, which the EU has encouraged farmers to preserve, to store CO2 in the soil. Farmers will also be able to receive more subsidies for existing obligations to preserve peatlands and wetlands.

The proposal would also let countries disburse more funding quickly in response to natural disasters, including droughts and heatwaves which many European farmers are facing more frequently as a result of climate change.

These are part of a series of EU "simplification omnibus" proposals, designed to slim down policies and paperwork for European businesses struggling to compete with China and the U.S., where President Donald Trump is aggressively cutting regulation.

EU governments would also be able to make bigger changes to their national plans for handing out EU faming subsidies, without first seeking EU approval.

EU countries and lawmakers must now negotiate and approve the proposals.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Ed Osmond)