Council and Parliament are advancing on their positions on the Industrial Emissions Directive

The European Parliament’s Committees on Environment and Agriculture have voted on their reports on the revision of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). The IED is regulating emissions and pollutions from large, intensive livestock farms covering currently big poultry and pig installations, with the proposal of the European Commission to also include cattle in the future under the directive.

The Environment Committee who is leading on the file, has adopted their report on Tuesday 24 May. The MEPs have voted on including pig and poultry farms with more than 200 LSU (livestock units), cattle farms above 300 LSU and mixed farms above 250 LSU. This raises the threshold compared to the Commission’s proposal of 150 LSU. MEPs propose to exclude extensive farms on which the livestock unit density is less than 2 LSU per hectare used for grazing or foraging. Agriculture MEPs have voted on their opinion in April, suggesting to remove cattle from the scope of the directive and keeping the threshold according to the current levels in the IED.

The Council of environment ministers reached an agreement in March. The Council’s approach sets the threshold above which farms fall under the scope of the IED to 350 LSU for cattle and pigs, 280 LSU for poultry and 350 LSU for mixed farms. Exemptions apply to extensive cattle and pig farms, with a stocking density of less than 2 LSU/hectare used only for grazing or growing fodder or forage used for feeding the animals in the installation.

After the vote in the plenary of the European Parliament, foreseen for July 2023, the negotiations will start with the Council.