Which environmental simplifications could enable farm investment for a modernised, sustainable, and competitive agricultural sector?

Many farmers and other actors in the food chain are willing to invest to modernise and improve the competitiveness, circularity, and sustainability of their farms or plants. However, this momentum to move forward is considerably slowed down or even stopped due to over restrictive and burdensome EU legislations such as the Water Framework Directive, the Birds and Habitat Directives or the Nitrates Directives. Considering that the Commission has explicitly put “simplifying for sustainable competitiveness” at the centre of its political agenda for 2024 2029 and has announced “stress‑tests” of several environmental legislations for 2026, it is timely to assess with people on the ground what are the changes required to ensure a more competitive and sustainable sector.  

Bringing together policymakers, legal experts and farmers, we will look into the legislative barriers limiting legal certainty, financing and planning to ensure that “simplification” does not remain a purely rhetorical exercise but genuinely reduces administrative burden and enables sustainable farming and rural investments. 

Programme

📅 24 JUNE | 🕑 14:00–17:00 | 📍 Brussels, Committee of the Regions Room VMA21

I. Welcoming Speech

• President Piotr CAŁBECKI (5 minutes) 
  • President of the NAT Committee 

II. Setting the scene

• Roel Jongeneel, Wageningen University & Research (15 minutes)
  • Setting the scene on competitiveness, sustainability, and barriers  

• Carole Hernandez, specialist on environmental law (15 minutes)  
  • Systemic litigation affecting farmers

• Member of European Parliament on construction permits (10 minutes) 
  • European Parliament view on construction permits

Exchange with MEPs (15 minutes) 

III. Examples of barriers and permits refusal in different sectors and countries 

• Dairy farmer (10 minutes) 
  • Dairy farmer example

• Grzegorz Brodziak (10 minutes) 
  • Chairman of the Board – Polish Agricultural Federation and Goodvalley

• Poultry farmer or Sheep farmer (10 minutes) 
  • Poultry farmer or Sheep farmer

• Maja Tomšič (10 Minutes) 
  • Slaughterhouse difficulties on permits

Exchange with MEPs (15 minutes) 

IV. Coffee break (20 minutes) 

V. Barriers to innovation and the use of new technologies  

• Claire-Lise Speisser – European Biogas Association (10 min) 
  • Barriers to biogas installations
• Laurent Lambert – Biowanze (10 min) 
  • Barriers to biotech installations
• Michael Kropsch – Raumberg – Gumpenstein, Center for Education and Research (10 min)
  • New technologies in animal husbandry 

Exchange with MEPs (15 minutes) 

VI. Closing  & Q&A 

• Conclusion by  DG ENV (10 minutes) 

• Exchange with MEPs  (20 minutes)