EU waves through subsidies
Germany is allowed to pay farmers millions for animal welfare
January 30, 2024, 2:04 p.m
A large part of politics and society want better farming conditions for pigs, cattle, etc. However, the change to greater animal welfare costs farmers a lot of money. The federal government wants to help and is now allowed to do so. The EU Commission allows Germany to subsidize.
Germany can support farmers with around one billion euros to implement greater animal welfare. The main focus is on better conditions for pigs, as the EU Commission announced in Brussels. More than half of the money, around 675 million euros, will go to farmers as a subsidy for investments. This means the state can contribute up to 60 percent of the costs for better stables. According to the EU competition authorities, this funding runs until the end of 2030.
The second pillar of aid – around 325 million euros – is also intended as a grant. The money could be used to cover up to 80 percent of additional costs incurred for greater animal welfare. These include additional bedding or higher electricity bills for air conditioning and better ventilation. This aid should run until the end of 2031.
According to the information, both measures can be extended to other animal species. According to the commission, the funding is open to small and medium-sized livestock farming operations in Germany.
In the EU, the authority ensures, among other things, that member states do not give their companies undue advantages through state support. For example, the aim is to prevent an economically strong country like Germany from helping its companies push competitors from smaller EU countries out of the market. In this case, the competition watchdogs concluded, among other things, that the aid was proportionate because it was limited to a necessary minimum and would have only a limited impact on competition.