The European Parliament today voted on the report on the recasting of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) directive. Copa and Cogeca are content that some of their key concerns with the directive have been addressed.
Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General of Copa-Cogeca, said “We are pleased that the European Parliament has understood that agricultural and horticultural businesses are unlike other businesses affected by IPPC: many are so small that they simply do not have the capacity to manage the extremely complex IPPC implementation and compliance requirements. It is therefore good that the Parliament has rejected the proposal to lower the rearing capacity thresholds for poultry, which would have imposed disproportionately stringent requirements on this type of farming. We are also glad that MEPs recognized how the question of manure spreading is already comprehensively covered by the nitrates directive.”

He added, “In other areas however, the new IPPC requirements will create substantial new bureaucracy and costs. Those farms where long-term investment decisions have recently been taken need more flexibility to comply with the new rules. The costs linked to IPPC can be very substantial and farmers are already suffering from very difficult market situations for their products. We are also concerned that today’s vote seeks to extend the scope of the directive to completely new types of farms and by the new uncertainty, which the introduction of the
Nitrogen Excretion Equivalency will bring about.”

For further information, please contact:
Lucia Zitti
Policy Advisor
Tel.: +32 2 287 27 18
Lucia.zitti@copa-cogeca.eu
Simon Michel-Berger
Press Officer
Mobile: + 32 474 840 836
Simon.michel-berger@copa-cogeca.eu