In Europe, agricultural activity is the source of 93% of ammonia emissions, 54% of methane emissions and 73% of water pollution. Animal farming is responsible for between 12% and 15% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions. According to a study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), emissions from agriculture are responsible for an estimated 72,500 annual deaths due to exposure to PM2.5. https://eeb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Upgrading-Europes-air.pdf The countries whose emissions cause the greatest impacts are Germany, France and Italy. Improvements to agricultural practices (i.e. to apply economically and technically viable best available techniques mainly linked to ammonia emissions) could lead to avoiding 27 000 deaths per year from air pollution and economic costs worth €75bn per year.
The EEB main points during co-decision where as follows:
- inclusion of cattle and intensive aquaculture;
- rejection of the “light touch” permitting regime resulting in regulatory backtracking, notably in regard to the basic obligations on operators to take preventive measures against pollution and access to information, public participation and access to justice rights;
- improved coherence with environmental quality standards notably for water protection as well as animal welfare rules;
- a proportionate approach on addressing livestock pollution hotspots, focussing on farms with more than 100 Livestock Units (LSU) where the socking density is above 1 LSU per hectare of grazing land under their management and where animals spend les than 60% of the time outside;
- minimal requirements on monitoring, inspections and periodic permit reviews.
See further information in the dedicated EEB livestock rearing briefing.
Members of European Parliament did support weakening of standards for the livestock sector as demanded by the industry representatives of the sector (mainly French Pig and Poultry industries). The result of the IED 2.0 is a significant regulatory backtracking compared to the 2010 situation based on the following:
- No full permit regime with strong public participation, access to justice and reporting requirements – this may constitute a serious infringement to the Aarhus Convention provisions.
- the possibility to have a notification system (Art 4).
- No more clear measures and standards to apply (IRPP BREF in a legal vacuum).
- No more minimal soil and groundwater monitoring obligations – Art 16.
- No more baseline report – Art 22.
- No more minimal inspections (every 3 years) – Art 23.
For many new features of the revised IED, the livestock sector got full exemptions, e.g.:
- No need to elaborate an environmental management system (new Art 14a),
- No requirement to elaborate a Transformation Plan (new Art27d)
- No more strict BAT enforcement and monitoring provisions (new Art 15).
Further to that:
- No more cattle inclusion – which was intended to be covered as from 150LSU in the initial proposal, as the trade-off for all this deregulation and backtracking on pigs and poultry.
- A fast track ‘tick box approach” light touch permit/registration regime for all pigs and poultry with a slight theoretical broader cover compared to the 1996 situation, but with thresholds far higher than already in place in Member States, incl. France that invented this light touch regime back in 2013, called “Enregistrement” will be generalised at the EU level.
The environmental norms for the farms included in the IED 2.0 scope will be set through new operating rules based on the best available techniques (BAT), so-called ‘’Uniform Conditions for Operating rules for Livestock’’ or UCOL. These will be developed through a Sevilla process like process involving Member State experts, NGOs, and representatives of the pig and poultry farming sector.
UCOL: Process and current status
The very first the Intensive of Rearing of Pigs and Poultry (IRPP) BREF was initiated in May 1999 (Kick off Meeting) and was published In July 2003, the EU BREF elaboration (from scratch) took 49 months.
The first review of the IRRP BREF started in March 2008 with a Kick off meeting in June 2009 and it was published only in February 2017, meaning it took 92 months (more than 5 years extra than the regular 4 years) to finalise. The BAT-Conclusions of the IRRP BREF (2017) were published on 21 February 2017, meaning that operators had to comply with those requirements by latest 21 February 2022. The future UCOL will constitute an update of the current IRPP BREF (2017) BAT Conclusions. The timeline is as follows:
- Kick-off Meeting (KoM) of the technical working group (February 2025). The conclusions of the KoM are available here.
- A first draft of UCOL is expected by November 2025 with a potential second draft for February 2026
- The final meeting is planned for March 2026
- The final UCOL should be adopted as a commission implementing decision by latest 1st September 2026 (as per Article 70i of the IED)
Operators will benefit of extra transitional times to adapt to UCOL (or to keep status quo if no ambition). If the farm exceeds 600LSU they will get +4 years, if it exceeds 400LSU +5 years and if it exceeds 350LSU (pigs) or 280 LSU (laying hens or mixed farms) +6 years.
Derogations granted to the 2017 IRPP BAT-C shall be reassessed as from 1st July 2026.
In short: the new UCOL will not deliver any pollution prevention / reduction benefits prior to September 2030.
Main Environmental issues and discussion points on BAT / BATAE(P)Ls
No single opposing view was expressed by the industry associations involved in the IRPP BREF (2017), which is very a-typical but a good indicator of weak ambition (see the 2017 IRPP BREF, search page 812). The EEB will hence restate our disagreements made already for the 2017 IRPP BREF in the split view, notably:
- ammonia emissions to air for fattening pigs to not exceed 2.2kg ammonia /animal place/year
- remove footnote on BAT 8b e on storage of solid manure in field heaps (only if change location each year, to be covered and which originate from farms that fully implement the litter and straw systems
- ambitious manure management BAT such as a maximum 4 hours incorporation limit of landspreading of solid manure into the soil so to enforce 60-90% of the emission reduction potential. Currently up to 12 hours is allowed, meaning a reduction efficiency reduction to below 50%.
- Strict compliance with animal welfare. Prohibition of fully slatted floors for ducks and all pigs categories (incl. mating, gestating and farrowing sows).
- Improved control measures for slurry acidification.
See notably EEB and other NGO letter to Ministers of Environment and Agriculture of 18 September 2015 and EIPPCB split view assessment with additional comments of the EEB.
UCOL will aim to address the significant contribution of intensive livestock rearing to air and water pollution, particularly in the form of ammonia emissions and nitrate pollution, which pose serious environmental and public health risks. By requiring these farms to implement BAT, the Directive aims to help Member States meet national targets for reducing ammonia emissions and improving water quality. Despite the weakening brought by the IED 2.0, Article 70i requires those UCOL to address, in particular, the “emission and environmental performance levels of installations and techniques, and other measures consistent with Annex III” . The revised Annex III lists decarbonisation and biodiversity protection as new features.
During the Commission survey frontloading the KoM, the EEB emphasised the following:
- need to address methane and ammonia emissions from livestock;
- need to address nitrates pollution (water quality) as well as phosphorus;
- to derive best practice for cattle, notably methane, to establish common benchmarks for the sector;
- reject the 2LSU/ha exclusion but to adapt to 1LSU/ha as suggested by the Reactive Nitrogen Task Force. Extended producer responsibility on the operator as to manure spreading, irrespective if happens on farm site or elsewhere
- Insist on the need to reduce stocking density and to adopt a whole farm approach which depends on the capacity of the surrounding environment to handle the livestock rearing related pollution load;
- no compromising if animal welfare is at stake: opposition to any cage system for poultry (in particular hens and ducks), oppose fully slatted floors for pigs and weaners and ducks.
- support transition to organic farming systems.
See EEB cover letter and the survey for the frontloading available here.
How can you make a difference?
In general, we are grateful for any best practice information relating to the main discussion points pre-stated, notably in relation to methane, ammonia and manure management aspects.
This also relates to best available techniques on monitoring of ammonia, methane, phosphorus and nitrogen.
The EU BRITE did recently carry out an in-depth information exchange on various aspects, please find the detailed survey here.
Contacts
Margherita Tolotto: margherita.tolotto@eeb.org