EPP prevents family farms from being classified as industrial polluters

The EPP Group welcomes the agreement between the Parliament and EU Member States not to consider cattle farms as industry plants. 

"We want less pollution, but more innovation. The new Industry Emissions Law will protect nature without creating more paperwork for businesses. We want to slash industrial emissions, but want to do it together with industry, farmers and SMEs, not against them," said Radan Kanev MEP, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on the Industry Emissions Directive after this morning's informal agreement.

The agreement is a success of Kanev, who managed to uphold the most important part of the Parliament’s mandate in the negotiation, given by a broad cross-party plenary majority.

“We kept cattle out of the scope of the Industry Emissions Directive. The European Commission must now make a new impact assessment and communicate fairly and transparently with farmers before coming back to Parliament with a new legislative proposal on cattle inclusion. We need safeguards for EU farmers, the so-called 'reciprocity clause', said Kanev.

The reciprocity clause provides assurance that in the future, imported agricultural products will comply with comparable environmental requirements as those in place for European farmers under the Industrial Emissions Directive.