Brussels Notebook: Green delivery is not about diktats from the Ballykelly HQ

The minister used the visit to underline his commitment to nature friendly farming and to confirm support and funding for his farming with nature plans.This is a green initiative that will succeed, because it works with farmers and is more about carrot than stick. It accepts that if society wants green outcomes these will be best delivered by the people that own and manage the countryside and have the best understanding of what is needed for practical, green gains. There is an understanding here that green delivery is not about diktats from Dundonald House, but stems from getting the right mix of policies acceptable to farmers to improve biodiversity and the environment. The trick is do do this without affecting farm productivity or the success of agriculture as the supply base for Northern Ireland's biggest industry. Get it right and this is a win win situation for farms and the environment and in a competitive world gives the food industry a marketing plus when dealing with the major retailers.Ironically as this visit was taking place as a press release was issued in Brussels that reversed any hopes there that farmers might have had that the European Commission was being honest when it said it would respond positively to the massive farm protests of earlier in the year. The press release confirmed that the EU’s controversial nature restoration legislation would be in place in just three days time.This legislation is based around reversing productivity gains achieved over decades on farm land and so goes against all claims that Europe can have a progressive and globally competitive farming industry. In the farming community here even staunch remainers will look at this and be grateful Brexit has allowed them to escape this legislation. Brexit supporters will deem it a vindication of what they said, even if it does not alter the fact that the Boris Johnson campaign was built on a tissue of lies. This legislation was not even in the pipeline when he was spinning his case for leaving the EU. While the Greens were trounced in the elections to the European parliament legislation they drove is very much alive and thriving. This will add to divisions between urban and rural areas and give ammunition to the far right opposed to the Brussels knows best approach.It will now be up to member states to implement new regulations to bring about the EU’s headline objectives. These for restoration measure across 20 per cent of land by 2030 and across all land by 2050. This is put in the context of improving biodiversity, reducing the loss of carbon capture areas and helping mitigate against natural disasters linked to extreme weather. This may sound good, but the farming lobby sees only further efforts not only to block productivity in agriculture, but to reverse what has been achieved. That the legislation was introduced was questionable, but even more so is that Brussels stuck with it despite member states withdrawing their support. This shows how Brussels can choose to ignore member states and thwart democracy. The test now will be the degree to which member states confront farmers by pushing implementation and whether Brussels will impose early sanctions for not doing so.That this legislation exists at all is down to the narrowest of narrow victory in the European parliament in July 2023. This allowed the legislation to be approved in the face of massive opposition. It is akin to the Brexit vote, so harshly criticised in Europe, because it is a winner takes all approach, regardless of the narrowness of the win and with no opportunity for a genuine reflection of the scale of opposition. The European parliament victory that delivered this legislation was thinner than the Brexit vote, only coming about because a handful of MEPs defied their political groups by abstaining. This was a massive disappointment for the farming lobby that was confident of a win. But with member states and European parliament support Brussels rushed ahead with the legislation. There will doubtless be demands from the green lobby in the UK for the government to further green its farming policies by following the European lead, so reversing a rare gain for farming from Brexit.