On Wednesday 27 January 2021, Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies (parliament) approved changes to the agrarian law aimed at avoiding a legal vaccum and financial insecurity.
With the post-2020 common agricultural policy (CAP) negotiations delayed at the European level, the new guidelines could not be implemented as planned on 1 January 2021. Luxembourg's Minister of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development, Romain Schneider, thus considered it essential to guarantee continuity and predictability in the management of farms.
The changes voted in parliament provide for maintaining the existing eligibility conditions beyond 1 January 2021 until the new provisions of the post-2020 CAP are transposed into national law.
Minister Romain Schneider explained: “The adaptations to the new agrarian law not only ensure the proper functioning of agricultural activity, but they are also part of a framework for recovery". These changes, which represent a total budget of € 4.3 million, also highlight innovative accents, such as a focus on the qualitative rather than the quantitative aspect during investment aid. For example, during the modernisation of stables, animal welfare and environmental protection will be favoured rather than an increase in capacity.
The changes also foresee the promotion of innovative and ecological equipment to better tackle environmental challenges, particularly with regard to the spreading of livestock manure as well as mechanical weed control leading to a reduction in the use of plant protection products.
Finally, they aim to promote short circuits by subsidising solidarity agriculture in order to strengthen new forms of partnership between producers and consumers.
For Luxembourg's Agriculture Minister, it is essential to support these new forms of partnership which are part of the policy of promoting local, seasonal and organic products. He noted: “These new forms of agriculture also allow atypical 'Quereinsteiger' [lateral entries] profiles to enter the field of agricultural production. The promotion of short circuits constitutes an additional step towards the diversification of Luxembourg agriculture".
Minister Romain Schneider concluded by pointing out that the adaptations of the agrarian law represent a solid basis for guaranteeing continuity during the transition phase while innovating with a view to alignment with the new orientations of the post-2020 CAP and the “Farm to Fork” strategy, as well as the PNEC national climate action plan and the European Green Deal. He explained: “All these measures are part of an 'agriculture+' which is based on the three pillars - ecological - economic - social - and which is characterised as a whole by its sustainability, its quality and its diversity".
