Agriculture reform - what needs to be done

These are the policy changes needed to stop eutrophication

It is of the utmost urgency that the EU and its Member States develop and implement regulations and policies that help reduce eutrophication in the Baltic Sea. 

Agricultural Subsidies

• There should be no agricultural subsidies without full cross-compliance with all existing environmental EU directives.
• There must be a clear shift away from direct subsidies/production subsidies (pillar 1) to rural development programme/agro-environmental subsidies (pillar 2). In the longer term, pillar 1 subsidies should be phased out in favour of pillar 2 subsidies.
• Regulations are needed to prevent hidden subsidies for unregulated increased production, for example from the rural development programme or structural funds.
• CAP subsidies should only be paid on the condition that all environmental regulations and standards are met.

Enforcement of current / future Directives

• The Nitrates Directive must be revised and regionalised.
• The whole Baltic Sea catchment are should be designated a nitrogen-sensitive area.
• All countries should abide by the EU Water Framework Directive.
• An agreement on a new Phosphorus Directive should be taken and rigorously enforced.
• Legislation and practices throughout the whole Baltic Sea area must be harmonised to ensure that harmful agricultural practices are not exported to another Baltic Sea country with less strict environmental standards.

Environment practices in agriculture

• The relevant Member States must protect, and the EU must encourage, the restoration and creation of wetlands and freshwater ecosystems where these are effective to reduce nutrient run-off.
• Regulations and standards in the catchment area must be increased to a level where only a sustainable level of eutrophication is accepted.
• Good farming practices and regulation of land use for farming must be further developed and implemented in EU as well as in national legislation, including a landscape and catchment-area perspective.
• Farms and landowners must be required to ban certain crops or farming practices in certain sensitive areas.

Environmental taxes

• Countries must implement a substantial general tax on the use of mineral fertilisers in the Baltic region. The tax should then be returned to farmers for improvements in farming practices and environmental performance.

All these measures should be strongly reflected in the Baltic Sea Action Plan, currently being developed by the Baltic Sea countries within the HELCOM framework.