European Vote Accepts Important Concessions

Many of Scotland’s pig and poultry producers could be spared from costly and unnecessary legislation

NFU Scotland, along with other UK Unions, has been successful in securing support from European politicians that should avoid complex and costly pollution controls being applied to many more of Scotland’s pig and poultry units.

The European Parliament agreed yesterday (Wednesday, 7 July) on recommendations to scrap the extension of legislation under the Integrated Pollution Prevention Control Directive.   If the planned changes to IPPC rules were to be implemented, it would double the number of Scottish farms requiring permits under this costly piece of legislation.   It would also extend the control of the IPPC into off-site manure spreading.

The European Parliament vote showed that MEPs were supportive of the introduction of sensible concessions into the directive to mitigate the worst of the proposals.  However, the Council of Ministers will have the final say in the legislative process when the directive receives its second reading sometime after the summer break.   NFUS, along with other UK unions will now turn their attention to Ministers to ensure the agreed concessions are accepted.

NFU Scotland Vice-President Allan Bowie said:

“IPPC is a piece of legislation originally designed for large scale industrial businesses but which ended up capturing a small number of Scotland’s larger pig and poultry producers in a sea of unnecessary cost and red tape.  Without sensible concessions, the IPPC scope would be widened to smaller pig and poultry keepers, many of whom would walk away from the sector rather than face the thousands of pounds of cost associated with obtaining IPPC permits.

“It has taken three years of negotiations to reach this stage and throughout that time we have challenged the need for such controls to apply to more farmers.  I am delighted the European Parliament has listened to our case to halt the expansion of the IPPC Directive to smaller, family farms. 

“In a victory for common-sense, the European Parliament also agreed that the frequency of inspections for those pig and poultry farms already caught by IPPC rules but which pose the lowest risk should be expanded to a maximum of three years.  If adopted, this should mean significant savings on the ongoing cost of permits to some Scottish farmers.

“We have persuaded the European Parliament of our case and our next challenge will be to ensure that Ministers take a similar view on these concessions later this year.

“The fly in the ointment is that a review clause regarding IPPC has remained in the Directive.   Scheduled for 2011 and 2012, this has the potential to look at the inclusion of cattle farms into the directive’s scope, the spreading of manure and the thresholds for poultry units.  Longer term, our focus will be on securing an IPPC that has minimal impact on Scottish farmers and growers.”  

Notes to editors

• The current IPPC Directive affects pig and poultry units of at least 40,000 poultry places; 750 sows or 2000 finishing pigs (over 30 kg) and currently affects a small number of farms in Scotland.

• The initial proposal for the new IPPC Directive, published in 2007 by the Commission, included:
  • Reducing the thresholds for laying hens, ducks and turkeys to 30 000, 24 000 and 11 500 respectively;
  • Including pigs and other poultry on the basis of nitrogen excretion equivalency;
  • Extending controls to off-site manure spreading; and
  • Bringing glasshouses with boiler units of total rated thermal input of below 50 MW within the controls.

• The review before the end of 2012 will look at requirements to consider whether to include control cattle farming, the spreading of manure and the boiler units with a total rated thermal input below 50 MW. It will also look at whether differentiated thresholds for poultry are needed and whether capacity thresholds for different types of animal within the same installation are needed.

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Contact Bob Carruth on 0131 472 4006