Diederen, P.J.M., and Silvis, H.J.,
Environmental targets and policies for agriculture in Europe.
The Hague (The Netherlands), National Council for Agricultural
Research (NRLO), 1998. NRLO Report 97/18.
[Original title: Milieudoelstellingen
en landbouwmilieubeleid in Europa - Achtergrondstudie voor de
verkenning hulpstoffen en energie in landbouwsystemen in 2015]
ISBN 90-5059-048-9
Summary
The development of EU environmental
policy is of growing importance for Dutch agriculture. With what
targets will this policy confront us in twenty years time? This
report approaches this issue from two different angles. First
we extrapolate current policy trends into the future; then we
analyse a number of determinants that could possibly influence
divergences from these trends. The recent experiences with EU
environmental policies do not promise rapid progress or sharp
deviations from the current course. Also, further developments
of policies will have to cope with growing contrasts within European
agriculture as the EU expands.
EU environmental policies
for agriculture
The contours of future EU environmental
policies are outlined in the fifth Environmental Action Programme.
For agriculture, one of the targeted sectors in the programme,
clear long term environmental goals have been specified: maintenance
of those basic natural processes that are indispensable for sustainable
agriculture, especially protection of water, soil and genetic
material; reductions in the use of chemicals to levels that do
not disrupt essential natural processes; equilibrium between the
use of nutrients and the absorption capacity of the soil and vegetation;
maintenance of the rural environment aimed at preservation of
biological diversity and natural habitats and minimalisation of
natural dangers and forest fires.
Concrete midterm targets have
been set in the programme up until the year 2000 as well as a
number of policy measures to attain those goals. However, the
targets do not have a mandatory status. The execution of policies
is guided by the subsidiarity principle: the EU only has a role
to play when goals cannot be met at the national level.
Closer analysis of the policy
process shows that environmental policies for agriculture tend
to be decided upon only with great difficulty. There are hardly
any solid agreements and existing agreements tend to be ineffective.
The execution of the nitrate directive, in fact the nucleus of
the policy is years behind schedule in all Member States. There
is a useful directive in operation dealing with the admission
of agrochemicals to the market, but hardly anything is done to
curb the use of these chemicals. This unconvincing picture also
emanates from the environmental aspects included in the Common
Agricultural Policy.
The emissions of nitrates and
agrochemicals will be a problem in 2015 as it is today. The European
Commission will attempt to improve the effectiveness of it's policies,
for example by attaching more weight to environmental aspects
in its price and income policies. Ideas have been launched about
direct financial support for extensivation of production, for
biological agriculture and for maintenance of low input agriculture
in areas of high nature value. However, individual Member States
tend to try to slow down these developments. It is hard to predict
how the balance of power between Commission and Member States
will develop over the next twenty years. After a period of increasing
authority on the part of the Commission in the eighties we have
entered a period of mounting resistance against further loss of
souvereignty to Brussels. Expansion of the EU toward the South
and East will not stimulate countries to transfer more competences
to the Commission.
Determinants of environmental
policies for agriculture
Most likely there will still
be a large gap between the actual state of affairs and the environmental
targets that would ensure sustainability in the year 2015. The
games of give and take in the policy arena will thus continue
to be staged then as they are now; the question is only how and
to what end. Agreements on targets are reached in a dialogue between
Member States. Two factors determine the position of countries
take in such a dialogue: the nature of agriculture in the country
and the political and economic weight of agricultural interests
relative to environmental concerns.
In some Member States of the
EU, notably in the North and West, agriculture has become an ever
more soil and capital intensive, export oriented manufacturing
industry. This process of industrialisation has eroded old social
(corporatist) structures and traditional values. In terms of production
volume and value agriculture represents large interests in these
countries, but in terms of employment and relative contribution
to GDP it is a marginal sector. In politics the sector therefore
has a modest impact. The traditional spokesmen of agricultural
interests in the civil service look for a new mission or get reorganised
away. Farmers are being pushed into the role of guardians of our
valuable natural resources and are suspiciously watched by government
agencies who try to keep them on the right positive and negative
economic incentives.
In other Member States, especially
but not exclusively in the South and East, agriculture remains
a sector of central interest within the national economy, both
from an economic and from a social point of view. Agriculture,
usually relatively extensive in character and organised around
family farms, provides a large share of rural employment. Important
regions in some of these countries enjoy comparative advantages
in climate, natural circumstances and soil condition. Labour costs
are relatively low and educational levels are slowly coming up
to standards. Investment funds are finding their way into these
economies. Large areas in these countries, where conditions are
less favourable, remain traditional. In these countries the political
weight of agriculture is large and economic growth and development
takes precedence over environmental protection.
Ambitious environmental targets
emerge from national policy arena's in wealthy countries where
primary agriculture has developed into a small but integrated
part of a high technological agro-industrial complex. In these
countries the environment outvotes agriculture. Then these countries,
as they realise that their internal policies hurt them on international
markets, try to get comparable environmental requirements imposed
on foreign competitors. Pleas for stiffening environmental policies
in Brussels' councils and commissions can be expected more from
countries practicing a high tech intensive agriculture than from
countries with a more traditional type of farming.
Contrasts and antagonism between
EU Member States are likely to increase over the coming decade
or two. On the one hand, environmental problems in countries with
intensive agriculture get ever more pressing, on the other hand
the group of countries with a traditional farming sector is growing.
This could strangle further progress in EU environmental policies
for agriculture, it could paralyse the execution of environmental
policies, and it could further jeopardize the authority of the
European Commission in the area of environmental policy.
Research demands
At present, discussions about
environmental targets for EU agriculture seem to have stalled.
Deficiencies in the knowledge base on which analyses and arguments
are built is one of the causes of the apparent deadlock. Deficiencies
figure all over, from our understanding of the ecological resilience
of the environment across Europe and the economic resilience of
its farmers, to the drivers of public opinion and the determinants
and dynamics of policy mechanisms.
There is no full picture of all
relevant natural processes in soil, water and air; there is no
integrated picture of the condition of the environment in Europe
on a regional basis. There is lack of understanding of the interaction
between environmental policy, farmers' behaviour and attitude,
and environmental degradation. We are in need of scientific knowledge
on the physical side of these processes, but also of economic
and sociological knowledge about the behavioural components.
For a long time attention in agricultural research has been focussed predominantly on the supply side. However, agricultural producers have come to realise that they depend upon consumers and therefore need an understanding of their thoughts and opinions, e.g. with respect to environmental concerns and sustainability. Not only is our theoretical knowledge of consumer behaviour and attitude deficient, also we lack an overview of differences in these variables across Europe. A similar thing can be said about our understanding of policy mechanisms with regard to environmental policy across the EU: most importantly we lack an integrated and comparative inventarisation of the dynamics of policy formation and implementation in the EU Member States.