EU to adopt new livestock farming emissions rules after Parliament backs compromise
The European Parliament rubber-stamped a revised version of the EU’s rules on emissions generated by industrial installations, which will extend to more pig and poultry farms, despite efforts from right-wing lawmakers to topple the law during a final vote in Strasbourg on Tuesday (12 March).
The Parliament adopted the updated Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), which will force large pig and poultry farms to comply with rules for clean air and water, with 393 votes in favour, 173 against, and 49 abstentions.
However, seven votes could have changed the fate of the legislation, since 293 MEPs voted to reopen the compromise agreement reached by EU negotiators last November, while 306 opposed it.
The push came from a group of right-wing lawmakers led by Benoît Lutgen from the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), which presented additional amendments to scrap provisions affecting the livestock sector.
EPP member Radan Kanev, the lawmaker leading the Parliament’s work on the file, said the Parliament’s support for the rules proves its commitment to the EU’s environmental ambitions and the health of Europeans.
“It also demonstrates that those goals can be achieved without placing an additional administrative burden on businesses and especially on European farmers,” stressed Kanev.
“The vote emphasises that MEPs understand the reasons behind the farmers’ protests,” he added.
Reducing the administrative burden of EU legislation and appeasing farmers, who have been protesting across Europe since the start of the year, have become the most common themes in the run-up to the European elections in June.
The measures will apply from 2030 to pig farms with more than 350 livestock units (LSU), equivalent to approximately 1,100 adult pigs and 700 sows (females used for breeding), with the exemption of organic and extensive farms. The current directive already covers pig farms with more than 2,000 pigs and 750 sows.
The threshold for poultry remains unchanged at 280 LSU or 40,000 animals for farms rearing chickens for meat, while for egg-producing farms, the new limit is set at 21,400 laying hens, down from 40,000 under the current rules. For mixed farms rearing pigs and poultry, the threshold is 380 LSUs.
Companies can face penalties of at least 3% of their annual EU turnover for the most serious infringements, while citizens affected by a violation of the rules can claim compensation for damages to their health.
Under the revised IED, the Commission will have until December 2026 to evaluate whether the directive should affect cattle farms too. The EU executive will also consider introducing a “reciprocity clause” to ensure that products imported from outside the EU meet similar environmental standards as those produced in the bloc.
The approved text has been significantly weakened compared to the original European Commission proposal, which targeted the cattle, pig, and poultry farms of more than 150 LSUs.
The proposal has been heavily criticised by the EU’s agricultural sector and right-wing groups for targeting “family farms.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Copa-Cogeca, the EU’s most influential farming lobby, slammed the compromise agreement, arguing that livestock farming should not be treated as an industrial activity and that the percentage of farms covered by the directive had been underestimated.
Not enough
Environmental groups breathed a sigh of relief after the Parliament endorsed the IED but regretted the lack of ambition in the final text.
“It is somewhat reassuring that the majority of members of the European Parliament did not fall into the web of disingenuous arguments that only pretends to help farmers while enabling business-as-usual for the largest agro-industrial livestock operators,” said Christian Schaible, head of zero pollution industry at the European Environmental Bureau.
He called on the EU to get the IED over the line and “start working collectively for people and the environment”.
Meanwhile, Miguel Angel Zhan Dai, climate policy officer at FOUR PAWS, a global animal welfare group, emphasised that although thresholds for pig and poultry have been “slightly” updated, the directive “remains insufficient to address the pollution generated by the intensive farming sector”.
“If the EU is genuinely committed to tackling the adverse effects of the sector on public health, animal welfare, environmental issues, and global warming, it cannot keep us on the path toward this industrial disaster,” he added.
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