Reform of European agricultural policy key to more eco-friendly farming – env min
Clean Energy Wire / Tageszeitung
Germany's position on the reform of the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) is in danger of not being heard in Brussels because of a lack of coordination between the German environment and agriculture ministries, according to the country's Environment Minister Svenja Schulze. The agriculture ministry failed to take a clear position on environmental aspects of the future CAP, the Social Democrat (SPD) said at her ministry’s third Agriculture Congress in Berlin. The minister said biodiversity, reducing the use of glyphosate to halt the decline of insects, and the CAP reform were among her priorities for 2019. Measures aimed at making the CAP more environmentally friendly were inadequate so far, and could even be dropped from the final reform, she added.
The agriculture ministry, headed by Julia Klöckner, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU, is the first German ministry to table an internal plan on how to cut the sector's emissions in line with the country's 2030 emissions targets, reports Bernhard Pötter in the tageszeitung. But the proposed measures are insufficient. Negotiations between the agriculture and environment ministries on how to bridge the gap are ongoing, according to Pötter.
