AFTER weeks of speculation, the European Commission published its work plan for 2015 last month.

The plan was announced by Commission president Jean Claude Juncker at a meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

In presenting the plan, Mr Juncker and his deputy Frans Timmermans explained that abandoning certain pieces of legislation in favour of others was necessary to “clear the decks so that political efforts are focussed on the real priorities”.

Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has withdrawn certain laws as part of his intention to simplify the CAP.

On agriculture, the work plan contained commitments to ditch: 

- an aid scheme for fruit and vegetables in schools

- the energy taxation directive

- National Emissions Ceiling directive

- plant reproductive material – the “seeds law”.

The organic farming regulation was also included.

The Commission is giving Parliament and Council six months to reach an agreement on the dossier before scrapping the proposal. Critics are saying this is unclear – there is no guidance as to what level of agreement is intended and six months is a short time-frame in Brussels.

The announcement is largely good news for UK farming – scrapping the National Emissions Ceiling means farmers will not be forced to make over-ambitious cuts in ammonia and methane emissions, while the Energy Taxation Directive would have lifted special tax exemptions for fuel used in agriculture.

Currently a full rebate of duty is available for heavy fuel oil for heating, which is used widely used in agriculture.

Any change to this position would have meant increased costs for farmers.